It's Never Too Late To Start Over
by Isabel5
Summary: Chlollie! After thinking that Oliver is dead Chloe did what she thought she had to to keep everyone safe, but when Oliver comes back, is it too late to save the woman who sacrificed her life to save him? Hints of Chlex, be warned.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Don't own them or the world they live in sadly.

Pairing: Chloe/Oliver. With a little Chloe/Lex, but just read it ok.

A/N: I have to warn people who read my other Chlollie this isn't as lighthearted and fun but it was something that was banging around in my head and I just had to get it out. So I hope you enjoy.

* * *

Greta hadn't expected this day to be different than any of the other days in the two years she'd spent working at the hospital. She loved her job though she could see where people found it strange, her friends especially. They constantly asked her how she could stand it, how she could stay in that place for eight hours a day, in the quiet, all by herself in what they called hotel des morts, or Death Hotel. She constantly reminded them the patients weren't dead, they were just sleeping, in comas. She might have had the critical patients, the ones most likely to never wake up, but they weren't dead. In fact, she'd explained to her friends, kept on the life support machines, nourished with the IV's they would most likely end up outliving her, if you could call it living.

They also didn't understand she wasn't all by herself, she was surrounded by people, they may have all been asleep but they were still people, and they were there and she never felt alone. Perhaps it was because she worked the graveyard shift, maybe that's what made it worse, at night she was the only one there, during the day there were two nurses on duty and every other Tuesday Dr. Beck came through and did a check up, but at night it was just her and the patients.

It wasn't quiet either, no one was talking, people weren't laughing or moving around or fighting, but there were noises, noises that Greta had grown accustomed to, noises that she had memorized by now. There was a quiet symphony of life support machines pumping air into the lungs of the patients, the heart monitors letting out a steady beep as it tracked vital signs. She knew that every night around eight o'clock, when she got in, starting in the first room, then almost as if they were harmonizing, moving down the hallway, the printers would whir to life and spit out the reports from the day and she would go around, gather them up and put them in the charts. Around midnight, and then again at five an alert would go off at the main nurse's station to let her know it was time to change the IV's. There was noise, like a background soundtrack that chronicled her work day.

Mondays and Thursdays were bath days and it generally took her the whole shift just to get through all the patients. Wednesdays and Saturdays she had off, Sundays she worked with Rachel the other night shift nurse. Tuesdays and Fridays could get boring, especially when she first started working there. Rachel told her she'd go crazy if she didn't find something to keep her occupied, entertained. Rachel had many ways of entertaining herself, from inviting her boyfriend to work with her to playing poker with Mr. Steven's who'd been there as long as Greta had been born apparently. The funny thing was, Mr. Steven's had a tendency to win, a lot, and often times Greta would come in and find the jar on his nightstand over flowing with money. Rachel had set it up to hold his winnings and when Greta asked her why she would even bother, Rachel was offended. "Just because he's in a coma doesn't mean I can stiff him." She scoffed and Greta gained a little more respect for her flaky co-worker.

Greta found a different way to occupy her time. She was a reader and hoped one day to be a writer, a published writer. All her nieces and nephews always told her that she told the best stories and some of her Aunts had encouraged her to write them down. Her mom just called her a dreamer, always trying to find a story that was better than the truth, what good would ever come of that. But Greta couldn't help it, it was what she did. Before she got to know a person she generally concocted some sort of history for them in her own head, some whirlwind romance or tragedy that left them slightly broken. She figured she could do it for everyone else so why not the patients, and the best part was, they couldn't contradict her, they'd never wake up and tell her about their real life so she could go on imagining her stories. There were never any relatives either to visit either, when people ended up here, they'd generally been in this state so long that people had given up, just not enough to pull the plug.

So Greta came up with her stories, stories that she shared with Rachel one day in a rare bonding moment. Rachel had loved them, even gone so far as to write them all down and bind them together for Greta. Ms. Mayton in 514, they decided had been a Mati Hari type spy in World War II, risking her life, betraying her country, all for her German lover. Mr. Planer in 509 was a stunt pilot, he did air shows and death defying tricks. Everyone had a story and on Sundays when they were bored most of the stories got elaborated, expanded, ridiculous, except for one, Ciel. That wasn't his real name, no one knew his real name but Rachel and Greta both agreed that John Doe simply didn't suit him.

Rachel spent days combing over baby name books and internet sites before settling on Ciel, it means "from heaven" which fit him perfectly. His hair was golden, soft and smooth, his jaw and cheekbones chiseled as if made from stone, his body fit and lean with muscles in all the right places, he couldn't be any older than Greta herself but he seemed as if he had an old soul. The name didn't fit just with his looks, but also how he came to be in the clinic. He'd washed ashore one day, five years ago. A fisherman found him on the beach, his body torn up by the miles and miles of coral reefs surrounding the island, and by the time they'd gotten the scratches and broken bones repaired, they'd found a gunshot wound. He was fixed up as best as they could but he wouldn't wake up. He was breathing on his own, unlike most of the other patients and the Doctors couldn't find anything wrong with him but he wouldn't wake up. He was moved to the terminal ward when the search into his identity came back empty and they had no family to act on his medical behalf.

For some reason Greta couldn't make up a past for Ciel, she had a feeling that whatever she came up with wouldn't be good enough, would do him justice. Rachel jumped on his story, washing ashore, gunshot wound, no ID, there were tons of ways to explain that. He was a drug runner, he was a smuggler, she had tons of stories but none of them seemed right to Greta. He was fighter, that much she knew by the care he'd taken with his body, by the way he held on to his life. There were two small calluses on his hand, on his fingers that she couldn't seem to find an explanation for and a small scar on his chest, Dr. Beck said most likely came from an old gunshot wound, which only gave Rachel more ammo.

It was Sunday, an ordinary Sunday. She'd gotten up, ate her breakfast, hung out with her friends at the beach and then come into work expecting that her day would be just as all the Sunday's before it. She gathered printouts, changed IV's and made her rounds and then settled herself in Ciel's room and pulled out the book from his nightstand. "Where were we?" She asked herself, searching for her place marker before continuing with the reading. Sometimes Rachel sat in the room and shaved him while Greta read but tonight she'd lost the coin toss and was changing the sheets. She was only a paragraph in when she heard it, an unfamiliar noise, a beeping that didn't fit in the room. She looked up, sliding the book closed and stared in confusion at the monitor. The readouts were going crazy, this happened every now and then when the machines got old or a battery was dying. She stood up and leaned over the bed to hit the reset button, which usually worked until they could get someone in to look at it when something grabbed her hand. She had to keep herself from screaming, crying out as she looked down and saw him staring up at her, his eyes slightly unfocused, his hand squeezing her wrist as if he could break it without a second thought.

He croaked out, his throat dry and scratchy from years of non use and Greta brought her free hand to her mouth in astonishment.

He must have seen the fear in her eyes because he relaxed his grip on her wrist and she stepped back. "Don't try to speak, your throats not used to it. I'll go get the Doctor." She said to him as she ran from the room and down the hall.

"Rachel." She screamed as she made her way to the phone at the front desk. "Where is Dr. Beck's number?"

"On the pad by the phone." Rachel walked out of Mr. Steven's room and looked at Greta confused. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Ciel." Greta panted. "He's awake." She said dialing the number as Rachel's eyes went wide.

* * *

Ciel tried to pull himself up to a sitting position but he couldn't, his muscles were so stiff they wouldn't move and it had taken almost all his strength just to reach out to the girl. The girl who'd looked amazed to see him awake, The girl who ran out of the room as fast as she could muttering something to him in French. French! Did he speak French, he must, he understood her. Was he French? He didn't feel French, not that he knew what it felt like to be French, but he just knew he wasn't French.

Rachel poked her head in the door and smiled slightly at him. "Parle vous Frances?" He nodded. "Good." She smiled at him and walked in the room. "Drink." She handed him the water. "It will help your throat."

"Thank you." Oliver said as she pressed the glass to his lips and he drank greedily, as if he hadn't had water in years.

"Slowly." She admonished him and he pulled away sheepishly. "Would you like to sit up?"

"Yes please." He managed to say, in French, and the little bit of water seemed to have worked wonders, his throat was still raw, but it hurt a little less now. "Where am I?"

"Mamoudzou." She said. "An island of the West Coast of Africa."

"Africa?" He said confused, wondering how in the hell he'd gotten there.

He said sighing and laid his head against the pillows. "How did I get here?"

Greta walked in the room and sat down in her chair and told him the story, of how the fisherman found him, torn and beaten and unconscious. He felt his face and studied his arms confused, they didn't look torn up at all. "They've healed." Rachel told him.

"Healed?" Ciel looked over at the two woman. "I don't understand, how long have I been here?"

Rachel and Greta shared a look that seemed to form a twisting knot in Oliver's stomach. "Eight years." Greta finally said and that just seemed wrong to him, eight years. "We've called the Doctor, he'll be here soon." She laid, what he assumed was a comforting hand on his arm and then stood up to walk away. She glared at Rachel who followed her reluctantly out the door and they closed it behind them.

Roughly an hour later a Doctor came in, Dr. Beck. He checked Ciel over, constantly mumbling under his breath how it was impossible, astonishing that the young man had woken up after eight years. He was healthy, perfectly healthy, his muscles slightly atrophied but that could be fixed with intensive therapy Dr. Beck explained before leaving the room again mumbling once more about the impossibility of the situation. After the Doctor was gone Greta came back in the room, smiling at him as she moved to his IV bag and pulled a needle out of her pocket. "What's that?" Ciel croaked out.

"A sedative." She said.

"I've been asleep for eight years." He smiled at her. "Is that really necessary?"

"You'll strain your muscles, trying to do too much, they aren't ready yet." She said, almost apologetically. She administered the medicine and turned to leave. She stopped at the door and turned around. Ciel could fell the medicine start to take effect. "Is there anyone we can call?" She asked him. "You had no ID, is there any family?"

"I don't know." He said confused. Was there anyone they could call? Surely if he'd been asleep for eight years someone had come looking for him.

"What's your name?" Rachel asked quietly and he opened his eyes to look at her.

He stared at her for a minute before shaking his head. "I don't know." He closed his eyes again, his head a mass of confusion and drugs, any memories he could have tried to access were being clouded by the sedative. Who was he? How did he get there? Why was he shot? Questions swirled around, threatening to overwhelm him, take him over. Maybe things would be clearer when he woke up. Suddenly something so vivid and real flashed before his eyes, a face, a set of green eyes, a laughing smile, a name. "Chloe." He gasped out before succumbing to sleep.

"A woman's name?" Rachel asked later as they sat at the nurses' station eating their diner. "He said a woman's name?"

"Chloe." Greta nodded her head, remembering the pain in his voice as he whispered her name.

"Who do you think she is?" Rachel was on the edge of her seat, expecting some fantastic tale from Greta about star crossed lovers and battles of honor.

"I don't know." Greta said frowning. "She's special." She said. "Special to him."

"Go on then." Rachel wiped her hands and Greta looked over, realizing that she'd have to come up with some story to make Rachel happy or she'd sulk the rest of the night.

"I bet they met while he was on holiday." Greta said forming the story in her head as she told it, feeling that same feeling she had whenever she tried to come up with a story for Ciel, that whatever she came up with wouldn't do this mysterious Chloe justice.

* * *

He could hear her laughter, it echoed through his head and sent a strange tingle down his body, he couldn't see her face, not clearly, never as clearly as that first time, when he'd first woken up. Chloe, she haunted his dreams, every second he was asleep she was there, laughing and smiling. He was laughing and smiling too, down at her, always smiling at her.

"_Come on Sidekick." He spoke to her in English in his dream. He was American. "You're not playing fair." _

"_Like you ever play fair." She joked with him, foggy images of the two of them, possibly in a park, nothing was ever clear. Except the ending to the dream, the part where he got shot, the part where she got shot. Where her smiling face turned to confusion, to pain and blood welled up around her feet, dripping down slowly. _

"_Chloe!" He screamed. _

Ciel jerked awake groaning at the dream. "Sleep well?" Greta asked as she walked in his room.

"No." He pulled himself up and marveled at how much it still hurt. He'd been doing physical therapy for five hours a day since he woke up and his muscles were still sore, still weren't functioning as well as they should be. Eight years in a coma will do that.

"Did you remember something?" She asked him. "Chloe maybe?"

"Just her eyes." He shook his head. Not wanting to think about the dream, not wanting to think about her. "Always her eyes." Amnesia, common with head traumas according to the Doctors, now that he was awake, now that he was exercising his brain, they say it should go away but it had been months.

"You'll remember her." Greta laid a hand on his arm and he was grateful for her. He was moved from the coma ward the day after he woke up but with all of the shocks to his system the doctor thought it would be better to have something familiar around him, so Greta had been transferred to stay his nurse, and Rachel came to visit a lot. He recognized their voices, remembered Greta reading to him while he was in the coma, Rachel complaining to him about her job.

"Yeah." He grumbled and pulled himself out of the bed. He had to keep up with the physical therapy if he ever wanted to get out of there.

"Dr. Linus says you're pushing yourself to hard."

"I'm not." He assured her. "I'm just anxious to get out of here." He tossed her a smile, something he thinks he used to use to get out of tight spots a lot and she glared at him. They never worked on Chloe either. It just came to him suddenly and he knew, he just knew it was true, he knew Chloe never fell for his bright smile and dimpled cheeks. "Not that you're company isn't wonderful."

"If I was asleep in a hospital for eight years I'd want to get out too." She sighed. "But you're not going to do yourself any favors if you push too hard and hurt something."

"Yes ma'am." He said making his way to the bathroom to shower and then head off to physical therapy. Three days a week Dr. Linus was there in the hospital gym, helping him work his muscles, showing him the right exercises, the rest of the time he was there by himself, probably pushing himself too hard but he didn't care. He needed to get out, needed to find Chloe, needed to make sure she was ok. Whenever he thought of her, there was always a feeling of calm at first, comfort, affection and then suddenly an overwhelming feeling of worry, for her, about her. He'd think of his dream, watching her get shot, the color drain from her face as blood dripped down the side of her pants and had to know that she was ok, that she was alright.

Greta sighed as Ciel made his way down to the physical therapy room and stripped the sheets from his bed. He was going to hurt himself, push himself too far and then he'd never find this Chloe, this "angel with the green eyes" he'd called her once.

"_Angel?" Greta smiled. "Really?" _

"_I don't know." Ciel blushed, feeling strange. "I just, I have this dream sometimes, and she's standing in front of me and then suddenly she's glowing, like really glowing, there's this bright white light that just surrounds her, almost swallows her. You think it's just a metaphor? My brain trying to tell me something symbolically?" _

"_Could be." Greta smiled at him as she took his diner tray away. "Could be she's a real live Angel, wings and all." Ciel rolled his eyes at her. "Or could be Rachel's sneaking you chocolate before bed again, and that would explain the strange dreams." _

"_Could be." He smiled at her. _

"Greta!" She turned her head as she heard Rachel screaming her name through the halls. She dropped the pillow on the bed and rolled her eyes as she walked to the door.

"I'm in here." She called down. "Stop yelling, and running."

Rachel slowed her pace to a fast walk and hurried into the room. "Where's Ciel?"

"Physical therapy."

"Oh, maybe that's best for now." Rachel hopped on the bed. "You'll never guess what I found. I was cleaning out the waiting room cause I got bored and the magazines on those tables are like twelve years old, so I'm tossing them in the trash until I see this one." She pulls a magazine out from behind her back and passes it over.

Greta almost gasped, staring back at her from the cover of Time Magazine was the smiling face of Ciel. "Oh God."

"I know, but wait, the headline is the best part." Rachel practically clapped her hands together in giddy anticipation.

"Search called off for Oliver Queen, Billionaire Business tycoon presumed dead at sea?" Greta's head shot up. "Oliver Queen?"

"I think that's him." Rachel said. "I mean it looks like him, and the magazine's from about eight years ago."

"We should show him this." Greta headed for the door Rachel hot on her heals.

"He's a billionaire." Rachel said smiling. "Can you imagine, a billionaire."

"Rachel." Greta glared at her. "That's not even relevant."

"Maybe not to you." Rachel scoffed as they hurried to the physical therapy room and saw him lifting weights. Greta picked up the magazine and looked at the picture and then at Ciel, it was definitely him, unless he had a twin somewhere. The guy in the picture looked younger, happier but then again they all looked younger and happier eight years ago. He noticed them right away, standing in the door nervously.

"Is something wrong?" He let the weights fall to the ground and stood up.

"I don't think so." Greta said before slowly handing him the magazine.

"What's this?" He took it from her and flipped it over. The girls stood anxiously as he stared at the cover for a full minute before sitting back down on the weight bench.

"Is that you?" Rachel took a step forward.

"Oliver…" He tried the name out on his lips. Scenes passed in front of his eyes.

"_Oliver!" Chloe's voice sounded surprised and happy as she opened the door to find him standing there._

"_Oliver!" Someone else, unfamiliar, a man in black and purple leather, he screaming out a warning._

"_Ollie…" A woman, a brunette, she seemed annoyed with him. _

"_Oliver, come here." This woman was more than familiar, it was his mother, she was bending down to pick him up._

"Yeah I think…" He ran his fingers over the lettering of his name. "Oliver Queen."

"You're rich." Rachel said to him and he looked up at her. Greta elbowed her in the ribs. "What? He is."

"What did the article say?" He asked ignoring Rachel and flipping through the magazine.

"Well most of it's not in there, but it says you were flying to India on a business trip and had to bail out of your plane, only your chute must have malfunctioned. They searched for months, far longer than they were supposed to." Rachel explained to him.

"But they didn't find me?" Oliver asked.

"No you were presumed dead." She shrugged.

"Chloe!" He said suddenly. "Did it say anything about Chloe?"

"No, sorry." Rachel said.

"Oliver Queen." He tried the name out again. "Hello, I'm Oliver Queen." It felt write but it didn't feel completely right, like there was something missing from the name. He flipped through the article skimming it a bit until he saw a page with pictures, picture he presumed of himself. Some when he was young, then in high school, then in college. In one of them he was wearing a costume, it must have been Halloween or something. He was dressed as Robin Hood. Amazing how you can't even remember your own name with Amnesia but early medieval folk tales you remember just fine. There was something about the picture though that just hit him in the gut. He traced the bow and Arrow that he was holding in the picture and suddenly had another flash of memories.

"_Green Arrow come in." Chloe's voice again, in his ear this time, an earpiece. She sounded so worried. "Green Arrow what's your status." He was fighting someone, two someone's, guards. He was dressed in Green leather and for some reason he didn't find that strange at all. "Green Arrow do you read me." _

_He dispatched the guards and stood up, slightly out of breath. "Green Arrow to Watchtower, going silent running, await for instructions." _

"Green Arrow…" He whispered to himself, careful that Greta or Rachel didn't hear. He wasn't sure what that memory meant but he was sure he couldn't tell anyone about it. "Watchtower."

Suddenly it was as if the floodgates opened. Memories came pouring in from every side, top bottom, left, right, everywhere. Losing his parents so young, the bow and arrow, learning to use it, to master it. Donning the suit for the first time. His first time out, fighting as Green Arrow. Going to Metropolis, Lois Lane, Clark Kent, his team, Chloe. "Are you ok?" Greta's hand was on his arm and he looked up at her and winced, it was giving him a headache, but he didn't' want it to stop. Chloe helping his team out, Chloe helping him out. Moving her into the Clock Tower so that she'd be there whenever he needed her to. His mom and dad smiling and laughing at him. Bart his nose bleeding, walking limp after Clark rescued him from Lex, Lex Luther grinning at him manically as he pulled the trigger and shot him. Chloe being shot.

"There!" He actually screamed out loud, that was the memory he wanted, that was the memory he needed. He closed his eyes and thought hard about it.

"_We have to go." Oliver screamed at Chloe. "We can't wait any longer." _

"_We can't leave him here." Chloe screamed back. _

"_He's a big boy Chloe; he can take care of himself." Oliver grabbed her arm and pulled her to the side of the ship._

"_Leaving so soon?" A voice said from behind them and Oliver froze as he heard the familiar sound of a gun cocking, even over the roar of the winds and the rain. _

"_Lionel." Chloe said. "Thank God." _

"_Chloe…" Oliver warned as she let go of his hand and made her way to the elder Luther. _

"_We've got to get out of here but AC…"_

"_Is still inside." Lionel said. "I know." _

"_Can you help us?" Chloe asked looking between Lionel and Oliver with a relieved smile on her face. _

"_No." He shook his head. "But…I think there's a way that you can help me." _

"_I don't…what are you talking about." _

_  
"A proposition Miss Sullivan." Lionel said smiling a smile that Chloe hadn't seen in years, a smile that she would never forget, the same one he gave her as she left the courthouse after testifying in the trial that would send him to jail, right before he tried to blow her up. _

"_Chloe, come on." Oliver stepped forward. Possibly to speed up Chloe's thought process, to help her realize what was happening Lionel aimed and fired._

_Chloe turned around just as Oliver hit the concrete like a ton of bricks. "No." She screamed running to him and laying her hands on his chest. _

"_Don't even think about it Miss Sullivan." Lionel cocked the gun again. "Put your hands up where I can see them and back away slowly." _

"_Do it." Oliver choked out as tears rolled down Chloe's face._

_Lionel stepped closer and bent down, pulling off the sunglasses and hood of the Green Arrow to reveal Oliver Queen. If he was surprised he didn't show it. "Miss Sullivan and I have some business to discuss." _

"_I don't understand." Chloe said shakily looking at the blood that was being washed away by the rain as soon as it escaped from Oliver's chest. "I don't…" _

"_Do you wish for your friend to live Chloe?" _

"_Of course." She said astonished that he would even ask her something like that. _

"_Then I suggest you come with me." Lionel told her. _

"_Come with you where?" Chloe screamed. "He needs a doctor…let me, I can heal him."_

"_Oh I know." Lionel smiled. "I've seen what you can do, and I really can't have that." _

"_But…" _

"_Miss Sullivan." Lionel said. "Will you come with me?" Chloe looked from Oliver to Lionel, Oliver was shaking his head, encouraging her to go. _

"_Yes." She said in a whisper. _

_  
"Good." Lionel aimed the gun at Oliver. "Push him over the side."_

"_No." Chloe screamed. "You said…" _

"_I said that he could live, and he might." Lionel told her. "I'm certainly not going to do anymore damage to him." _

"_No." Chloe was really crying now._

_Lionel aimed the gun again and Chloe felt the floor slam into her hip before she registered the pain in her leg. She looked down and realized that she'd been shot. "Chloe!" Oliver cried out. _

"_You'll be fine, with quick medical attention Ms. Sullivan, push him over." Lionel told her. Chloe half crawled, half dragged herself to Oliver and put her hands on his chest. "Any lights and I kill the both of you." _

"_I'm so sorry." She was sobbing now. "I…" _

_  
"Just do what he says Chloe." Oliver told her. _

"_I'll fix this." She assured him. "I promise." _

"_I know." Oliver smiled as she reached into his top, seemingly to get a better grip on him, but really to active the GPS hidden in his suit. Her plan was risky but there wasn't much else she could do. If the GPS receiver was on, she could come back and find him when she got away from Lionel. She kissed his lips, lightly, tentatively, and then pushed with all her strength, sending him splashing in the turbulent sea as she broke down again. _

Lionel Luther shot him, shot Chloe and then took her away. Where? He had no clue, was she ok, was she still alive? He had to hope, pray that she was but if she was surely she would have come looking for him, would have found him, and taken him home. If Chloe was alive he'd been in a physical therapy room in Star City by now, not in a clinic in Africa.

"You remember?" Greta knelt down in front of him and he nodded as the tears fell from his eyes. It was like he was feeling everything for the first time, remember his parent's death all over again, Chloe.

"She's dead." Oliver said stiffly.

"Dead?" Rachel asked. "Whose dead?"

"Chloe." Oliver dropped the magazine to the ground. "She's dead."

"Oh I'm so sorry." Greta squeezed his shoulder. "Can I…"

"I think I'm going to go back to my room." Oliver said pulling himself up. His limbs never felt so heavy, so useless as he dragged himself all the way back to his room and collapsed on the bed. He'd promised Clark he would take care of her, keep her safe and she was dead, because of him, because of his stupid fight for Justice. Where was his justice? In what world was it fair that he lived and Chloe Sullivan died.

* * *

Two weeks later Greta walked into Oliver's room and flung the curtains open, spilling light into the room. "Close them please." He grumbled and Greta sighed. Every since he'd remembered this was all he'd done, lay in his bed and stare at the ceiling, preferably in the dark if it was possible.

"No." She said defiantly and nodded to the door. Rachel walked in.

"What are you going to drag me into the shower again?" He glared at them and they rolled their eyes. He wasn't sick enough for a sponge bath so after the first week of sulking they'd basically ambushed him in his sleep and dragged him into the shower stall. He hadn't been happy but at least he was taking semi regular showers now.

"No, we're going to drag you to the gym."

"No." He rolled over.

"Ok." Rachel stormed over to the other side of the bed and glared. "We've had it about up to here with the attitude. Greta took care of you for two years when you were in that coma, I was there for four and the whole time we figured you had this great life to get back to and now you know you do and we aren't going to sit here and let you waist away in a hospital in a small island off the coast of Africa. So get the hell out of bed and go to the gym." Oliver looked over at Rachel and rolled his eyes pulling himself out the bed. He reached for the walker and she jerked it away from him. "You could walk on your own two weeks ago, you can walk on your own now."

And that's how it went for three more months, Oliver would start to feel sorry for himself and Rachel would kick his ass and send him to the gym. The exercise made him feel better, it gave him a purpose, something to do, a way to get ready to exact his revenge because if there was anything that Oliver was good at it was revenge. He was practically back to his pre accident weight limit when once again his whole world came crashing down on him.

"You don't have to sit in here and babysit me." Oliver groaned as he lowered the weights to the ground and grabbed the towel and water bottle Greta was holding out to him. Rachel scoffed.

"Rachel just likes seeing you without a shirt on." Greta flipped the page in her magazine, not paying Oliver the slightest bit of attention as Rachel's face turned red and went back to the television. She was flipping channels and something caught his eye.

"Stop." He screamed, scrambling over weight machines on his way to the television. Rachel was frozen with the remote in mid air.

"The news?" She asked confused.

"What are they talking about?" He ignored her.

Greta looked up at the screen and squinted. "The school thing."

"What school thing?" He took the remote from Rachel and turned it up.

"A bunch of charities got together and they're building something like 200 schools in Africa, the representatives came yesterday to start the two week tour before they break ground on the first sites." Greta closed her magazine. "Why are you so interested in it?"

"I thought…" He lowered his head. "I thought I saw Chloe's picture."

"Chloe?" Greta took a step forward and placed an arm on his shoulder. "You said she was dead."

"I thought she was." He frowned. "I think she is…"

"Are you talking about her?" Rachel asked blowing a bubble with her gum, her voice bored. "That Chloe?" She pointed to the screen and Oliver's eyes went wide as he took in the site before him. It was Chloe, it was his Chloe, she was alive, she was happy, she was beautiful and smiling and being crowded by children as locals gave her a tour of a village.

"That's Chloe." He sat down heavy. "My Chloe."

"That's your Chloe?" Rachel turned to him. "You mean you actually know her?"

"You know her?" Oliver asked confused.

"Everyone knows her." Greta said to him her brow furrow. "She's America's first lady."

"She's…" He looked between the two girls confused. "Married to the president?"

"No." Rachel rolled her eyes. "That's just what everyone calls her, though people say someday it could be possible. She's like a cultural icon, our Generation's Jackie O."

"Jackie O was the first lady." Greta pointed out.

"But even after she wasn't the first lady she was still the first lady you know."

"I get it." Oliver let out a breath. "She's alive, and she's healthy and she looks happy, doesn't she look happy?"

"She looks happy." Greta said to him.

"That's good right?" Rachel asked.

"That's great." Oliver smiled. "I thought she was dead, I thought she was dead because of me and she's not dead, she's not even hurt, she's great." They showed more footage of her studying building plans and meeting with officials. "So she's like important?" Oliver turned to Greta. "She's got like a great job or something, Secretary of State or maybe she's a Senator or Congressman, well Congresswoman, and Ambassador? I knew she'd do great things."

"She doesn't really have a job." Rachel shook her head.

"But what's she doing here?" He pointed to the screen.

"That's her thing, she does charities." Greta said. "Tons of charities, I don't think there's a charity out there that she hasn't done something for."

"Mind you she's got the money to do most of this stuff by herself." Rachel sighed.

"She's got money?" Oliver asked confused.

"More money that you probably." Rachel shook her head. "Well it's not really her money is it, it's her husband's."

"Her…so she's married then?" Oliver seemed to deflate a little and Greta's heart broke for him. "To who?"

"Lex Luther." Greta said.

All of the blood in Oliver's body went ice cold, the remote fell to the floor and broke as he stared at Greta in disbelief. "I'm sorry." Oliver said trying to even out his voice. "I thought you said she was married to Lex Luther."

"Yeah, well, look." Rachel pointed at the television and it showed Lex getting off a plane with Chloe standing at the foot of the steps waiting to great him. When he reached her they embraced, shared a kiss and she snuggled into his shoulder as he pulled her against his side.

"They've been married forever." Greta said.

"I need to see her." Oliver shook his head. The image of Lex kissing Chloe and Chloe smiling forever burned to his retinas. "I need to see her now."

"She'll be in Madagascar Friday." Rachel said pointing to the itinerary on the screen.

"I need to be there." Oliver stood up and walked to the showers. "Whatever it takes make it happen."

"Yes sir." Rachel said sarcastically. "Boy didn't take him long to start shouting orders." Rachel walked after him. "How am I supposed to pay for this?" She called after him. "I mean you're not exactly rolling in the dough seeing as how you won't let us tell anyone who you really are."

Oliver stopped and turned around. "Just pay for it and trust me when I get back to being Oliver Queen, you'll be reimbursed."

"Like I got money lying around doing nothing." Rachel scoffed before going to the computer to book a flight and hotel room. "I'm charging you interest rich boy." She screamed down the hall and he just waved at her. "He has to know we're coming with him."

"He's stupid if he doesn't." Greta agreed.


	2. Chapter 2

Oliver stood as close as he dared which wasn't that close, Greta was at the front of the crowd, she wasn't very good at covert work, she kept staring back at him and he had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. He couldn't believe he agreed to let the two of them tag along but Rachel said that there was no way there were going to miss this and then pulled the caretaker card on him again. He relented in the end but now he was starting to regret that.

Chloe was getting closer and closer to Greta and Rachel and finally Greta's hand reached forward and Chloe embraced it. Oliver didn't know if she'd gotten the note, her face, her movements betrayed nothing. When she released Greta's hand he saw her palm drop very quickly to her side and then it was back again. She'd put the note in her pocket. She still had the magic hands, he smiled slightly. "I think she got it." Greta said when she was back at Oliver's side.

"She did." Oliver said.

"Do you think she'll come?" Rachel asked.

"She'll come, she can't help herself. She used to be a reporter. Anything for a story." Oliver said watching as she made her way down the line. Her eyes lighting up as the villagers passed her homemade gifts, worthless trinkets, but she acted as if they were diamonds or pearls. She was so different now, but yet still the same. Eight years had done nothing but good things to her and he smiled at the sophisticated woman she'd become. But at the same time she had that childlike wonder about her, that innate goodness and curiosity that had drawn him in so completely so long ago.

"Are you coming?" Greta asked tugging on his sleeve.

"Yeah." He said, sparing one last look at her as she yelped in surprise when a child ran up and attached himself to her leg. "Yeah." He turned away and sighed.

* * *

Greta checked her watch for the fifth time and sighed. "Will you relax, he says she'll come, she'll come." Rachel sighed leaning back in her seat as she kept an eye on the door.

"She's two hours late." Greta said.

"Maybe it takes a while to put on all that make up." Rachel scoffed.

"I don't wear a lot of make up." A voice said, sliding into the seat in front of the two girls. "I prefer the natural look."

"Where did you come from?" Greta looked confused.

"I've been at the bar the whole time. I don't know you, I don't know what you're trying to pull, I wanted to see how long you were willing to wait for me." She took a sip from her bottled water and looked at the two girls. "This is the part where you two say you've got some information for me and then we barter on price."

"No price." Greta shook her head.

"You don't know how to barter do you?" Chloe smiled. She slapped the slip of paper on the counter. "I don't find this the least bit amusing."

"It's not a joke." Rachel glared at her.

"Oliver Queen has been dead for eight years. I…I'm not amused." Chloe's eyes turned hard, unfeeling. When the girl had slipped her the paper while shaking her hand earlier that day, instinctively she hid it, slipped it in her pocket, didn't draw attention to it, but didn't think much of it either. She almost forgot about it until she was looking for change to give to the children. When she opened it, when she read it she was glad she'd spent the past eight years learning how to school her features, to give nothing away because inside she felt like someone had just grabbed a hold of her lungs and squeezed with all their might. "Watchtower, Oliver Queen sent us. Meet at bar on fourth street, midnight."

She debated with herself whether she even wanted to go. It had to be a trap, something set up by Lionel but…as much as he knew about Oliver, even about Oliver being the Green Arrow and that Chloe worked for him, he hadn't known about Watchtower. It could have been Bart, or Victor, or even AC but this seemed something to cruel for even them to do. Maybe it was Dinah, however it didn't feel like her either. In the end she'd talked herself into going, out of curiosity if nothing else, that old reporters instinct that she couldn't get rid of no matter how hard she tried.

"But he's not dead, he really isn't." Rachel said. "We can prove it to you." Rachel opened up her phone and showed Chloe pictures she'd taken earlier that day of Oliver with the day's paper.

"Are you…holding him hostage?" Chloe looked between the two girls.

"We aren't kidnappers." Greta rolled her eyes. "We're his nurses. He's been in a hospital, in a coma for eight years, he woke up about nine months ago."

"He's been awake for nine months?" Chloe asked a little confused, a lot hurt and at the same time ecstatic that he was even alive. "Why didn't he contact anyone?"

"He didn't know who he was at first." Greta explained about the amnesia. "All he could remember was you and then he thought you were dead." Chloe's eyebrows rose at this. "He said the last memory he had of you, you'd been shot and…he thought you were dead until he saw you on the news last week."

"Oh." Chloe said.

"He gave us this." Greta passed her the sealed envelope. Chloe opened it slowly, reading the letter, tears forming in her eyes, sometimes a laugh, sometimes a sad smile.

"He's alive." Chloe said taking one last look at the letter then sighing as she held it over the candle and it caught on fire.

"What are you doing?" Rachel gasped. "He spent hours on that."

"I know, and no one else can ever see this." She said apologetically. "Ever, delete the pictures from your phone." She ordered.

"He wants to see you." Greta said as Rachel deleted the pictures.

"He can't." Chloe sighed finishing her drink. "Tell him that, he can't see me, he can't talk to me, he just can't. Tell him to forget I exist."

"You're all he's talked about since he woke up. Even when he didn't remember who he was he remembered you." Rachel seemed to be getting angry.

"If he knows what's good for him, he'll forget about me." Chloe stood up. "Tell him I'm a happily married woman. Tell him not to contact me again." She turned around and walked away.

"God, what a bitch." Rachel said.

Chloe closed her eyes, Oliver was alive, he'd been alive for eight years, it was almost like, no matter what happened now, it was all worth it. "Wait…" She heard the other girl's voice and turned around slowly. "I don't think your being a bitch."

"Thanks." Chloe said sarcastically.

"When he came into the hospital, he'd been shot. He thought you were dead because the only thing he could remember was you getting shot too." Chloe unconsciously brought her hand to her hip, rubbing the scar from the bullet that Lionel had shot her with. "I'm thinking maybe you're trying to protect him, maybe you're trying to help him."

"Maybe I'm just a bitch." Chloe countered.

"No." Greta smiled. "He called you his Angel." Chloe could feel the lump forming in her throat. "Is there anything unofficially that you want me to tell him?"

There were so many things that Chloe wanted to tell him, but could she risk it? She wanted to tell him that she loved him, that not a day had gone by in the past eight years she didn't think about him, miss him that she still cried at night over the loss of him from her life. But she couldn't tell him all of that, it took everything she had to come here tonight and she couldn't risk that with sentimental nonsense that wouldn't make a difference anyway. "No." Chloe shook her head. "I can't…"

"Please." Greta grabbed her arm. "Something, anything."

Chloe sighed and took a deep breath, throwing caution to the wind. "Tell him that," She paused smiling at a distant memory. "Tell him, "All the world's a stage"."

The confusion was obvious on Greta's face as she watched Chloe walk away, she was hoping for a declaration of love, a tearful goodbye but definitely not that.

* * *

Greta and Rachel stood in front of Oliver nervously. "She said that?" Oliver said confused. "She said never to contact her again, to forget that she existed?"

"I know she's you're long lost whatever." Rachel said. "But she was kind of a bitch. Maybe she does love this guy. You were gone a long time."

Oliver smiled slightly at this comment but just nodded, letting the two girls know he'd like to be alone. Rachel left but Greta stood there. "There's something else." Greta said quietly.

"What?" Oliver looked up at her.

"She said to tell you, she said to tell you, "All the world's a stage"."

Oliver looked confused for a second and then the small smile he'd had before grew ten times in size. "She said that? Those were her exact words?"

"Yeah." Greta nodded, not sure how but that had made him feel better. "What does that mean?"

"It means she doesn't love him." Oliver said smiling. Greta wasn't sure how he got that from what she said but she smiled, happy for him as she walked out the door. "She doesn't love him."

"_I can't believe she gets to go in undercover." Dinah pouted as she perched on the corner of the desk. _

"_You are somewhat of a public figure." AC pointed out. "I'm not sure that people would believe you were really Ms. Peterson." _

"_I'm not sure people would believe a girl like you would ever marry this guy." Bart smiled pointing at AC._

"_Hey!" AC glared at him. "I could get a girl like Dinah." Dinah scoffed._

"_I'm not sure that people are gonna believe Chloe would ever marry a guy like you." Victor said smiling._

"_You know I'm not a leper." AC sighed exasperated._

"_So you know what to do?" Oliver asked Chloe as he fitted her with the microphone._

"_Pretend to be madly in love with my husband and desperate for a baby." Chloe smiled. They were investigating a fertility clinic they believed to have ties to Lex and 33.1._

"_Don't take any drugs they give you and if they want a blood sample, make sure to switch yours out with the fake one." Oliver said and Chloe tapped her bag to indicate she had it and everything was fine. "But seriously." He smiled and looked over at AC. "You think you can do this? Really? Pretend to be in love with AC?" _

"_All the world's a stage." Chloe said smiling. "I can do this." _

"_All right then, move out." Oliver said._

"_Yes sir." Chloe mock saluted him and turned to grab AC's arm. _

"_I could get a girl like you." He pouted. _

"_Of course you could." Chloe assured him smiling. "You're a great catch." _

"_Fish jokes, all I ever get are fish jokes." He mumbled._

Oliver smiled to himself. She was faking it, she was pretending to be the happily married wife of Lex Luther. Why? He didn't know that yet but he would find out and if she was doing it to protect him, he was going to fix that. He was going to make things right, he might have been away for a while but it was his turn to protect her, whether she wanted him to or not. He pulled himself up and made his way to the door of the hotel room. It was time to go back to the hospital, to get in shape, it was time to get out of there, and it was time to show the world that Oliver Queen was back.

* * *

"Thank you." Chloe said smiling to the waitress as she set the breakfast plate in front of her.

"You're welcome miss." The woman bowed slightly before walking out of the room.

Chloe hummed quietly to herself as she buttered her toast and Lex lowered the newspaper beside her, looking at her quizzically. "Someone's in a good mood today." He smiled at her.

"Someone is." She said taking a bite of her toast and smiling even bigger, she couldn't stop smiling now.

"Did you get lucky last night?" Lex joked with her.

"No." She said rolling her eyes. "Did you?" She raised an eyebrow at him and he brought the paper back up, covering his face. "Guess that's a no."

"Are you going to be in this mood all day?" He asked tiredly from behind the paper.

"You know." Chloe said thinking about it. "I might be in this mood forever."

"Lord help us all." Lex chuckled but Chloe ignored him. She broke ground yesterday on the first of 200 new schools in Africa and then she found out that Oliver was alive. Life couldn't get much better than that.

* * *

Chloe could hear the whispers; she could feel the stares, even though they weren't directed at her. "It's Oliver Queen." A lady said to her right. Chloe resisted the urge to turn and look. She was just as shocked as everyone else when three weeks ago every news agent in the world showed Oliver Queen, billionaire business man back from the dead, arriving in Star City. It was one thing to see pictures on someone's cell phone, read the note he'd written to her. It was another thing entirely to see him walk off of a plane, smiling and waving at the crowd that had gathered.

"I still can't believe he's alive." Another voice whispered.

"Back from the dead and still looks hot." Another said.

"He's coming this way."

"Lex." Oliver said.

Lex turned around and Chloe took a deep breath turning with him. "Oliver, wow, so the rumors of your death had been greatly exaggerated."

"Greatly." Oliver smiled. "Aren't you going to introduce me to…"

"Oh, Chloe this is Oliver Queen, Oliver this is my wife Chloe." Lex frowned. "I believe Oliver dated your cousin Lois once."

"Oh right." Chloe shook Oliver's hand. "A long time ago. I find it strange we've never met until now."

"Well I have been dead for eight years." Oliver reminded her.

"Right." Chloe smiled. "How did that work out for you?"

"Almost lost my company, my house, my inheritance and I'm so far behind on General Hospital that it's like watching a completely different soap opera." He joked.

Chloe smiled politely and wondered what the hell he was doing. She had hoped that she was very clear with her message, to leave her alone, and yet, his first party after coming back from the dead and he immediately makes a bee line for her group. He turned his attention to the other couples that were standing with her and Lex, regaling them with the story of where he'd been and what had happened. She'd heard the "official" story, it was everywhere, CNN, Larry King, FOX News. He'd been doing some sort of daredevil stunt, parachuting out of a low flying plane over some mountains and he'd lost control of his shute, crashed into the ocean and washed ashore on a small island off the coast of Madagascar where he spent eight years in a coma. She ignored him, listening to his fake version only made her remember the real one and she couldn't think about that now.

Instead she studied him. He looked good, he looked really good, healthy, fit, not like a man who'd been in a coma for eight years. He looked, just as she remembered him. "If you'll excuse me." Oliver said politely before bowing out of the group and making his way to another group at the party.

"It's amazing." Lex said in her ear. "The man just won't die."

"Excuse me?" Chloe said confused.

"All the things that he's been through. The plane crash that killed his parents, being stranded on a desert island, a coma…if I didn't know any better I'd say he was invincible." Lex sipped his champagne.

"Invincible?" Chloe said glancing over at him. "Nah, maybe just lucky."

"I wish I had his luck." Lex grumbled.

* * *

Oliver tried to pay attention to whatever inane story Sissy Laughlin was telling him but his eyes involuntarily kept drifting over to Chloe, where she stood with Lex, his arm around her waist. He watched as he leaned down and whispered something in her ear, he watched as she laughed, a real throaty, down in your stomach laugh. He watched as she leaned her head on Lex's shoulder, as he kissed the side of her temple, slowly rubbed his hand up and down her back. "Make's your stomach hurt just to look at them doesn't it?" A familiar voice said.

"Yeah." He answered without thinking.

"You feel like you're going to lose your lunch, like the world doesn't make sense, like it might start spinning backwards at any moment?" She asked again.

"How did you know?" He turned around and smiled to see Lois staring at Lex and Chloe.

"Cause I've been watching them for eight years and I still feel that way every time I see it." She sipped her champagne and tore her eyes away to smile sadly at Oliver. "Welcome back."

"Thanks." He said to her. "What are you doing here? Charity fundraiser, not really your scene, unless you married some big wig too?"

"No." She laughed. "I'm covering it for the Daily Planet."

"You're still a reporter?" He smiled.

"Of course." She nudged him a bit with her hip and she was quite for a minute. While Oliver tried to figure out what to say to an ex girlfriend after coming back from the dead, she turned to him. "I blamed you."

"What?" He asked confused.

"For the longest time I blamed you." Lois nodded her head at Chloe and Lex. "I mean I wasn't stupid, I knew she worked with you and I knew you guys had some strange special bond and I didn't think it was coincidence at all that three months after you die, she's married to Lex Luther."

"You blamed me?" Oliver asked.

"I didn't know how or why but I just knew that it was your fault. I could feel it in my gut, I wanted…I wanted to find you and bring you back to life so I could kill you again." Lois sighed.

"So am I safe, have your homicidal tendencies lessened over the years?" Oliver moved slightly further away from her.

"Relax Queen I'm not going to kill you." Lois rolled her eyes. "Eventually I just grew to accept it. I've even had Christmas dinner with the Luther's these past couple of years, one great big happy family that's us."

"And?" Oliver looked over at Chloe and Lex.

"I don't know." Lois shrugged. "I mean they seem like the perfect couple. They seem to love each other, they seem…but something's missing, something isn't right and I've been trying to figure out what for eight years with no success."

"If Lois can't figure it out what hope do the rest of us have?" Oliver joked.

"Hey!" She glared at him. "I'm a damn good reporter. I didn't believe the skydiving story for a moment but you covered your tracks pretty good, if it wasn't for an ace up my sleeve I never would have found out about the gunshot wound." Oliver turned to her a little concerned. "Relax, you're secret's safe with me but you seriously paid quite a bit for silence."

"Obviously not enough." He grumbled.

"No one told me, no one told me anything, you've got those people shut up tighter than Fort Knox. Unfortunately there was just no way to get rid of all of your medical files." She smiled.

Oliver sighed, he'd worked hard, spent quite a bit of money and made even more promises to keep the majority of his story hushed up.

"_This is more than generous Mr. Queen." Dr. Beck said to him as Oliver signed the check and handed it over. _

"_You guys kept me alive for eight years, it's the least I could do." Oliver smiled at him. He'd returned to civilization rather quietly, got his company back, his money, but before he could come out the world, he had to make sure that no one found out what really happened to him. _

"_A new hospital?" Rachel scoffed. "With state of the art equipment, on an island the size of Washington DC? Can you say over kill?" Oliver looked over at her. "What? We kept Mr. Steven's alive for thirty five years and he took fifty bucks off me in last night's poker game." _

"_Look, I just really appreciate what you guys did for me here and I want to make sure everyone can get the same medical attention that I did." _

"_Of course." Dr. Beck smiled. "If there's anything else that we can do for you, don't hesitate to ask." _

"_Actually, there is just one small thing." Oliver said. "A lot of people are going to call here, come here, try and find out what happened to me, you can tell them whatever you want about my treatment and my coma and recovery I just ask that you don't mention anything about the gunshot wound." _

"_Sure thing." Dr. Beck nodded. "Not a peep." _

"_I really appreciate it Dr. Beck." Oliver shook his hand as the man walked away, staring in disbelief at the check. _

"_So you're really leaving?" Rachel jumped down of f her perch on the desk. "This is weird, I'm just so used to you being around." She shrugged. "Granted the first five years you were asleep but after you woke up, you sort of grew on me." _

"_Rachel." Greta chastised her. _

"_Here," Oliver handed both of them an envelope. "I owe you guys for…well for a lot of things actually but literally I owe you for the plane tickets and the hotel on Madagascar." _

"_You didn't have to." Greta smiled at him. _

"_Yes he did." Rachel tore open her envelope and pulled the check out only to drop it on the ground. "Holy shit." She said bending down to pick it up and look at it again. "Wait, you do know I just bought the plane tickets, not the plane?" She said staring at the zeros._

"_Yeah, but you also said you were gonna charge me interest." Oliver pointed out. _

"_This is what you call interest?" She looked up at him. "I could by an Island with this interest. I could buy this Island with the interest." _

"_So buy and island." Oliver smiled. "The money's yours." _

"_What are you talking about?" Greta pulled the check from Rachel and then looked between Oliver and the check two or three times before tearing open her own envelope._

"_I knew it." Rachel smiled. "When it comes to money she's just as greedy as the rest of us." Rachel smiled watching Greta's eyes get wider and wider as she took in all the zeros on her own check._

"_Mon dieu." She looked up at Oliver and tried to shove the check back into his hands. "I can't take this."_

"_You have to." He shook his head and folded his arms over his chest. "I'm not taking it back." _

"_It's too much." She tried again to push the check on him and again he shook his head. _

"_You read to me." Oliver told her. "When I was in that coma, I remember some things and you read to me, practically every day, you just sat there and you read to me. It's not too much." He gently pushed the arm holding the check back toward her. "If anything it's not enough." _

"_I don't know what to say." Greta cried, the tears falling. _

"_Travel, see the world, take some time off from work, write that novel you're always talking about." Oliver shrugged. "Live a little."_

"_You heard the man." Rachel threw an arm over Greta's shoulder. "Live a little." _

_Greta laughed through her tears and Oliver said his goodbyes before leaving the hospital, then the island, probably forever._

"What happened out there?" Lois asked him. "That night? I know from AC that you guys were on a boat somewhere doing something for your little Justice League. But how does it go from mission on a boat to dead Oliver and married Chloe."

"If I knew that…" He trailed off glancing over at Chloe and Lex again as they smiled and talked. "It would make my job so much easier."

"I need you to save her." Lois said. "I never asked anything of you, ever you know that, even after I found out who you were and what you did, I never once asked, but I'm asking you now."

"What if she doesn't need to be saved?" Oliver voiced the question he hadn't wanted to hear the answer to. "It's been eight years. She could have saved herself ten times over by now. She's a resourceful girl."

"Chloe Sullivan is married to Lex Luther." Lois pointed out. "There isn't a single part of that sentence that isn't wrong and you know it. Maybe she didn't want to save herself. Maybe she didn't have a reason. Maybe she was waiting for someone to do it for her."

"Ok." Oliver nodded.

"Good." Lois said before finishing her champagne and walking away.

Oliver kept a close eye on the couple for the rest of the party. There was one thing he discovered after about two hours, he was never going to get Chloe alone. Lex had a pretty tight grip on her most of the time and when he wasn't glued to her hip, she threw herself into a large group of women, he'd rather not go over and put himself in the middle of. He did notice something though, toward the end of the party, Lex got a phone call, a phone call that Chloe over heard, a phone call that started a discussion. Oliver could tell, though he wasn't sure if anyone else could, that the phone call had upset Chloe. That throughout the discussion she was trying her hardest to keep her temper in check. He could also tell that the phone call wasn't what was really upsetting her.

* * *

Chloe and Lex drove back to the penthouse in silence; they walked in the lobby, to the elevator, in the elevator and to the door in silence. It wasn't until they both made their way into the study that either of them spoke. "You were late tonight." Chloe said reaching up to pull the pins out of her hair. "What's her name?"

"Careful dear." Lex said pouring two cups of scotch and walking over to Chloe. "One would think you actually cared."

"What I care about dear." Chloe smiled and took the glass from him. "Is that you at least have the decency this time not to fuck one of my friends." She took a sip and relished in the way it burned her throat. "I have to live in this town Lex, and in this marriage."

"Would you rather I fuck you instead?" He asked setting his glass down and moving toward her, placing one hand on either side of her waist, effectively trapping her against the table. "Is that what you really want?"

Chloe took another sip before pulling herself up to sit on the table top. "When has anything in this relationship been about what I want?" Chloe asked him.

"When it comes to this?" Lex asked sliding his hands under the slit of her dress and slowly bringing them up to her waist. "It's always been about what you want." He reminded her kneading the skin of her hips with his fingers. "When you want." He dipped his head and kissed her jaw line causing her to close her eyes involuntarily. He nudged her knees with his hips and they opened, just enough so he could slip through them stand in between them. "Is this what you want Chloe?" He pulled her forward, smashing her against his body as he made his way down the curve of her neck to her shoulders.

"I'm still mad at you." She managed to croak out.

"Never stopped you before." He smiled against her skin. "In fact, generally, when you're mad at me, it makes it more…interesting." He lifted his head up and kissed her, pulling her closer as she hands clawed at his jacket, not pulling him close, not pushing him away. "What do you want Chloe?" He asked her again and again as he pulled her underwear down, dropping them on the floor between them. "What do you want?" He asked again as her hands found their way to his waistband.

There was a cough at the door and they both turned to see Mary, Lex's assistant standing there. Lex didn't move, save for his head when he glared at her. "What?"

"That phone call you've been waiting on from Hong Kong." She said before stepping out of the room.

Lex sighed and turned to Chloe. "We'll finish this later?"

"I won't be in the mood later." Chloe smirked at him and raised her eyebrows. It was a challenge, stay now, get lucky, take your phone call, go to sleep unfulfilled.

Lex sighed and stepped away from Chloe and walked to the door. Work always trumped sex. She jumped off the table and walked over to the bar to pour herself another drink. At some point between getting to the penthouse and now it had started raining, bad. Lightning flashed in the sky and Chloe almost jumped ten feet in the air when she saw the figure outlined on the balcony. The silhouette was so familiar but it had been so many years since she'd seen it she almost didn't recognize him. Green Arrow. He was just standing there, staring into the room, an unreadable expression on his face, the glasses hiding his eyes.

Chloe sighed and realized, he'd seen what had just happened, he'd seen her exchange with Lex, she could play the lovey dovey married couple in front of Lois, in front of Clark even, in front of the world. She could kiss her husband on national television but she never wanted Oliver to see that. It wasn't even what he thought, it wasn't like she wanted him. It was a game they played now, a game that was so complicated at this point in their relationship that Chloe tried to avoid it at all costs, just to keep her head above water. She managed to win tonight but the next time she might not be so lucky.

She composed herself, calmly took a breath and walked over to the balcony, unlocking the doors and walking away. Oliver let himself in, bringing rain and leaves in with him and Chloe walked back to the bar. "Can I offer you a drink?"

"Chloe." He had the voice distorter on and that somehow made the shame worse.

"I'm sorry." She turned around. "I'm not sure what exactly the protocol is for uninvited peeping superheroes who just returned from the dead." She slammed her glass down on the counter and Oliver at least had the decency to flinch. His guilt was gone the next moment though and his anger was back.

"What's going on Chloe?" He asked. "What are you doing?" He walked over to the table where she was not moments ago and picked her underwear up off the floor. "What exactly is going on here? I got your message, I was pretty sure I interpreted it correctly but when I get here, I see the very opposite of a fake marriage."

She snatched the underwear out of his hands and glared at him. "If you got that message, then you go the other ones." She said. "Do you remember those? The ones where I said to stay away, not to contact me? The one where I told you to forget I exist?"

"Wasn't going to happen and you knew it." Oliver growled at her. "Did you think I was just going to let this go? Chloe Sullivan married to Lex Luther?"

"You need to." Chloe said to him. "Please Oliver, let it go."

"No." He said shaking his head. "I want to know what's going on, and I'm going to find out, you know I will."

"Oliver…" She was pleading with him now, no more anger, no more annoyance, she was simply begging.

He couldn't tell you what made him do it. He was furious with her, furious with the situation, and even more furious with the scene he was unfortunate enough to witness moments earlier, but he couldn't help it, almost as if his mind and his body had separated and he had no control. She was just standing there, looking up at him with those eyes, those eyes that were so much sadder up close, so much older, begging him and he grabbed her, pulled her up against him, their bodies melding together so closely it obvious to him that this was how it was supposed to be, how it should have been from the beginning. "You're going to tell me what's going on." He whispered to her. She reached up tentatively and pushed the glasses up on to his head.

"Ok." She whispered.

He smiled and leaned down, capturing her mouth in the most brutal and urgent kiss she'd ever felt in her entire life, eight years worth of emotion and desperation went into that kiss and when he pulled away, Chloe wasn't sure if she would be able to remember her name. "And you're not going to do that with him anymore."

"Ok." She whispered again, more than happy to oblige, even if Oliver never kissed her like that again. They stared at each other for a minute before she heard Lex's less than pleased voice coming down the hall.

"No, that's not what we agreed to." He screamed.

"Tomorrow, at the museum." Chloe said. "Four o'clock, the Hooper exhibit." Oliver nodded and released her. He opened the French doors again, letting in more rain and Chloe wondered just briefly how she was going to explain the water. As if reading her mind, Oliver reached down smoothly and broke the door latch, keeping the door from closing before disappearing off to wherever he came from in the first place.

She picked up the phone on the desk and called down to the lobby as she ran to the French doors and held them closed. "Yes we need someone from maintenance up to the Penthouse." She was saying when Lex walked into the room. "The balcony doors won't close, I think the latch is broken." She looked over at Lex and he sighed, walking to her to help her keep the doors shut. "I understand we're on the top floor, I'm not exactly worried about burglars here, I'm a little more concerned about the three feet of water that's being pumped into the room by the minute. Half an hour, great." She turned off the phone and sighed as Lex moved a chair in front of the doors, keeping them closed. "Thank You." Chloe said, looking at her gown which was now soaked almost up to her knees. "I'm going to change."

"Wait." Lex called out for her. "Are we going to finish what we started?"

"Not tonight dear." Chloe turned around smiling sweetly. "I have a headache." Lex glared at her for a second and she turned to walk away. "Besides, you have to wait up for the repair man." She walked back to their bedroom her nerves finally giving away once she was away from Lex, her legs shaking, her knees weak. What was she doing? She told Oliver that she'd see him tomorrow, that she'd tell him everything. She couldn't do that, he'd find out, he'd know she broke the deal, and she had no idea what he would do if that happened.

* * *

She fell asleep more easily than she thought she would, her dreams however weren't so easy. She went back to that night on the boat, that night that she'd tried eight years to forget unsuccessfully.

_Chloe watched Oliver's body be thrashed around in the water below, she couldn't believe she'd just pushed him over. AC was a good swimmer, and he would get out of there and he would find Oliver, she had to believe that. "I don't have all day Miss Sullivan." Lionel told her and she defiantly pulled herself up, putting as little weight as possible on her leg and walking over to him. _

_  
"If anything happens to him…I'll kill you myself." Chloe said. _

"_I highly doubt that my dear." Lionel told her grabbing her arm and pulling her away._

_At some point, out of pain, exhaustion and heart ache she fell asleep, or possibly passed out, she's not sure which. She just knew that when she woke up she was in a hospital, well what looked like a hospital, but knowing Lionel in all actuality she could have just been in a converted warehouse somewhere. "Good, you're up." Lionel snapped his paper shut and smiled at her. Chloe pulled herself up in the bed and glared at him. _

_  
"Where am I?" Chloe asked. "What do you want?" _

"_We'll get to that in a second." Lionel said. "But you're safe." _

_Chloe snorted. "Lana told me about what you did to Clark, how you betrayed him…but I didn't think…"_

"_Miss Sullivan, you should have known me well enough by now to realize that I've always been the villain of this story." He smiled at her. "You and I are going to make a deal."  
_

"_I don't make deals with you anymore." Chloe said. _

"_Oh I think you'll make this one." Lionel told her. "After all it would be a shame if the world learned that Oliver Queen was really the Green Arrow, if the world learned the true identity of all your little friends, if Lex learned about them all, even Clark." _

"_You wouldn't." Chloe glared at him. _

"_In all your experience with me, do you really think there's anything I wouldn't do?" Lionel asked. _

"_I thought you were changed." Chloe told him. "Saved by Jor-El." _

"_I was." Lionel said. "As you all refused to believe to the point where, the gift that saved me, condemned me." _

"_I don't understand." Chloe looked at him quizzically. _

"_It was taken away." Lionel explained. "My connection, my salvation." _

"_Jor-El cut you off?" Chloe whispered. _

"_At the instance of his son." Lionel nodded. "So really? What did I have left?"_

"_What everyone has left." Chloe told him. "A chance, to prove that without any outside influence, without anything in it for you, you really did change." _

"_No." Lionel said. "What I have left is my revenge." _

"_Spoken like a true Luther." Chloe snapped. _

"_I wouldn't sully that name about ." Lionel smiled. "Because soon you'll be carrying it yourself." Chloe looked at him confused as he laid down the plan to her, her punishment, her sentence. "You Miss Sullivan, are going to become my new daughter in law." _

"_Come again?" Chloe said stuttering. "You want me to marry Lex?"_

"_Precisely." Lionel said to her. _

"_Wow, ok, this just took a turn for the weird." Chloe laughed at him. "One, never, two doesn't Lex have some say in who he marries, and three, never ever." _

"_Alexander was allowed to pick his last three wives and we've all seen where that has gotten him." Lionel said. "He has his own reasons for agreeing to this, and you have yours." Chloe opened her mouth and Lionel held up a hand. "Clark, AC, Bart, Victor, Dinah." Chloe hung her head. "And Oliver will all stay hidden, stay in their safe lives, with their secret identities, Lex, and the world, will never know if you agree to this." _

_  
"And if I don't?" Chloe asked defiantly. _

"_You know what my son is capable of, and you know how long he's been after the secret of Clark Kent, what do you think would happen?" Lionel asked her. "You have twenty four hours to make a decision." _

"_Oliver?" Chloe asked as he walked to the door. _

"_Oh, right." He tossed her the newspaper and smiled. "My condolences." _

_Chloe picked up the paper and felt the tears come again. She had to read the headline at least five times before it made any sense. "Oliver Queen Missing, Presumed Dead." She cried all through the night, the nurses politely ignored her sobs, didn't bother to ask what was wrong, if there was anything they could do to help, they left her to her sorrow. She cried until the moment the knob turned on the door to her room, until she saw his figure outlined in the glass window. She wouldn't cry again, not for a long time, she wouldn't let herself. _

"_You're answer?" He asked simply, he didn't bother to come in, to sit down and enquire after her health, none of that mattered. _

"_I'll do it." Chloe said stiffly. "On one condition." _

"_Do you really think you're in a position to be bargaining here?" _

"_I think I'm in the perfect position to be bargaining here." Chloe responded. _

"_Very well." Lionel sighed. _

"_33.1, it's over, done with, never again, shut down all the facilities, return all the people." Chloe glared at him. _

"_33.1 is Lex's project." _

"_And apparently you've got Lex by the short hairs." Chloe pointed out. "Otherwise there's no way he'd agree to this marriage, so make him do it, or no deal." _

"_Fine." Lionel nodded. "No one but the three of us knows about this, not your cousin, not Clark, definitely not any of your little team, Victor, Bart, AC, or Dinah." _

"_Go to hell." Chloe said to him. _

"_Is that anyway to talk to your father-in-law?" He chuckled before closing the door again. _

Chloe sat bolt upright in bed, those feelings, that intense hatred and anger she'd felt all those years ago washing over her, coming back again as if a floodgate had been opened. "Are you going to come down to breakfast?" Lex asked, not bothering to inquire why she had such an abrupt wake up.

"No." Chloe said pulling the covers around her waist. "I've got to get to the museum." Lex turned and looked at her confused. "I promised I'd help with the clean up and it's the last day for the Macon exhibit." She explained stepping out of bed and grabbing her robe.

"I won't be home until late." He grabbed his jacket and without a further glance walked out of the bedroom. He was mad at her. Mad for accusing him of sleeping with someone else. The times when he got like this always reminded her of the beginning of their marriage. He just had this ability to turn it off, forget about the years that they'd been together and act as if it were still that first month, when neither of them wanted to be there, when they didn't know each other so well. He'd be like this for another few days, cold and distant and right now she was glad for that, glad that at least while she was betraying him, he wouldn't be acting like the model husband.

She almost had to laugh at the irony. There were times in their marriage when Lex was sleeping with anyone and anything that wasn't his wife, while Chloe, the dutiful bride smiled nice and pretended that she didn't know, that it wasn't happening. He'd stopped years ago, Chloe didn't know, or didn't want to admit why suddenly Lex had become the model of a faithful partner, why he stopped chasing women, stayed true to her. She found it ironic that once her husband finally decided to stay devoted to her she had kissed another man. She had gone for eight years without touching another man, kissing another man until last night and she only felt a small pang of regret that she didn't regret it at all.

* * *

Next Chapter: Lex and Chloe the early years.


	3. Chapter 3

* * *

A/N This is the second posting of this Chapter, nothing has changed if you've already read the previous one, I was doing something else and accidently deleted it. So sorry.

Chloe walked slowly through the door of the Luther Mansion and into the hall, someone took her coat and someone else grabbed her arm, escorting her to the study. She knew where it was, had been there many times before but she wasn't walking her best now so she allowed herself to be led. She was meeting with Lex for the first time since she'd agreed to Lionel's blackmail. "Mr. Luther." The man bowed slightly. "Miss Sullivan."

"Thank You." Lex said from behind his desk as he finished working on whatever it was he was doing before shutting the computer and standing up. "Could you have some champagne sent up please and then inform the staff that we are to be left alone for the evening."

"As you wish." The man bowed and left the room as Lex hurried to take his place by Chloe's side before she fell over. She'd been out of the hospital for a week and she was doing much better but walking took a lot out of her. He led her to the couch and she sat down. "Chloe."

"Lex." Chloe nodded taking a deep breath and wondering what one says to the person they have been blackmailed into marrying. "Champagne?"

"To celebrate." Lex raised an eyebrow at her and she scoffed. "This is not an ideal situation for me either as I'm sure you can guess."

"Then why are you doing it?" Chloe asked him.

"For the same reason you are I suppose." He leaned back in his seat and stared at her. "My father."

"Why specifically?" Chloe asked.

"My freedom, among other things." Lex said.

"You killed Patricia Swann." Chloe said slowly, piecing some of it together. "And Lionel has proof."

"Nothing concrete, but enough to make me more than a suspect, enough to have me indicted." He didn't even bother trying to deny it.

"How do you know I won't turn you in?" Chloe asked.

"Because I'm sure whatever my father has on you is just as compelling as what he has on me." Lex smiled as the door opened and the champagne was brought over. He opened the bottle and poured two glasses. "A toast then?" He handed one to Chloe. "To our upcoming nuptials."

Chloe downed her glass without toasting and after a minute Lex took a sip of his and then refilled her glass. "Does he think this will actually work?" Chloe asked.

"I'm sure he does." Lex said. "And if I know my father, it probably will." He reached in his pocket and pulled out a small black velvet box. Chloe froze as he opened it. Somehow seeing the ring made it feel all the more real. At any other time, with any other person this would have been perfect. There was a fire going, there was champagne, there was a ring. Only when she looked up from the ring box, she saw Lex and when she saw Lex she saw his father.

"You're not going to get down on one knee are you?" Chloe tried to lighten the mood.

"Do you want me to?"

"No." She shook her head. She didn't want to make this any less than what it was a business arrangement. He took the ring out of the box and grabbed for her hand. "I can do it." She said pulling the ring from his fingers and slipping it on. The weight felt massive, much heavier than just the diamond which was too large for her, too flashy, to showy.

"Do you like it?" Lex asked as she stared down at her left hand, entranced.

"Does it matter?" She asked looking up at him and sipping her drink. He was about to answer when the doors flew open and Lionel stepped in smiling.

"Oh good, we've gotten the formalities out of the way." He clapped his hands together. "Lex you always were a little fast on the proposals. Are we ready to go?"

"Go?" Chloe asked.

"To the Justice of the Peace, everything is set, but we really should leave now." Lionel looked at his watch.

"Now?" Chloe looked at him as if he was crazy. "We're doing this now?"

"No time like the present." Lionel rubbed his hands together and looked at Chloe's outfit, jeans and a t-shirt. "This won't do, good thing I thought ahead." Lionel smiled and walked out of the room.

"Did you know about this?" Chloe turned on Lex.

"I'm just as surprised as you are." Lex informed her. "One more for the road?" He asked gesturing to the champagne bottle.

"Do you have anything more substantial?" Chloe set her glass down on the table. Lex smiled at her and walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a bottle of scotch. He poured two drinks and handed Chloe hers. She downed it in one sip and winced as it burned it's way down her throat. Lex smiled before sipping his slowly. Lionel came back in the room carrying a garment bag and handed it off to Chloe who took it and looked at Lex.

"Second door on the left." He answered her unasked question and she nodded.

"No need to be shy Miss Sullivan." Lionel smiled wickedly at her. "After all, I'm sure you should have no trouble changing in front of your fiancé."

"Second door on the left." Lex repeated and Chloe walked out of the room. "How did you get her to agree to this?" Lex wondered out loud, not for the first time since his father had come to him with this ridiculous proposition.

"If I told you that son, what reason would she have to go through with it?" Lionel clapped Lex on the back and Chloe walked in the room in a very stylish white dress, pulling on a pair of shoes that must have been in the bag.

"Can we get this over with?" She asked running her fingers through her hair.

"Right then." Lionel said happily.

The ceremony had no frills; Lionel and a clerk at the courthouse stood in as witnesses and in five minutes it was over and Chloe was now Ms. Luther. "Now, now." Lionel said. "A newly married woman should wear a perpetual smile Miss Sullivan, she should glow." He lifted her chin and she gave him her biggest and brightest smile. "Better."

Chloe intertwined her fingers with Lex's as they left the courthouse smiling for any potential witnesses. The ride home was quiet and tension filled, Chloe and Lex on opposite sides of the limo. When they got to the house, it was more of the same posturing and pretending, Lex even went as far as to carry Chloe over the threshold and she had to force herself to laugh to keep from crying.

When they got back into the study and away from prying eyes they retired to opposite ends of the room and Lionel sighed. "Just a few more things to iron out." He pulled out his briefcase and grabbed two folders. "One for you, and one for you." He handed one each to Chloe and Lex. "It's lined out, just what we talked about, what I expect of each of you."

Chloe set her glass down and skimmed over the contract. Everything was there, Lionel Luther's guide to marriage, what would be expected of Chloe. She would move into Lex's house immediately, move into his room that night. The staff, along with the rest of the world would never under any circumstances have any reason to doubt the marriage or the agreement was null and void. They would be the epitome of a happy couple, or the agreement was null and void. Her friends would never, ever, find out her true motivations behind this whole charade or the agreement would be null and void. Chloe was also to remain faithful to her husband; she had no doubt in her mind that Lionel would be having her followed, if not all the time, then periodically, to keep her on her toes. The slightest hint of an extramarital affair and the agreement would be null and void. She sighed and signed away her sex life wondering how fifteen years of celibacy would work for her. "Is that all?" Chloe asked smiling. "You sure you wouldn't like my first born?" Lex cut a glance to her then to his father, he looked almost confused. "What?" Chloe asked.

"You should read the fine print Miss Sullivan." Lionel smiled flipping through the first few pages to a section Chloe didn't bother to read because she'd gone over it the day before, only now there was something new. The paragraph initially listed all the things Lionel thought a wife should be, manager of the house, supporter of the husband, hostesses, cook, and many other things, with a new description listed.

"Mother." Chloe read out quietly. Lex handed his contract over and stole a glimpse at Chloe as she polished off the rest of the champagne. "So I'm the lady of the house now?" Chloe asked Lex.

"Technically." Lex said to her.

"Then leave." She turned her attention to Lionel. "You got what you wanted, go."

"The announcement will be in tomorrow's papers, I hope you get a good night's sleep." He smiled at the both of them and left the room.

"Chloe…" Lex started, though he didn't know what he was going to say.

"I'm tired." Chloe informed him. "Where's your…our room?"

"I'll show you." Lex said grabbing her arm and allowing her to lean on him as he led her up the stairs. "Your things where moved here this afternoon. You're clothes are in the closet on the right."

"Thank you." Chloe said pulling away from him and headed to the bathroom.

"I still have some work to do." Lex told her. "I'll be a few hours yet."

"That's fine." Chloe told him. "I'm a heavy sleeper." Lex stood in the doorway for a few minutes more. "What side do you sleep on?" she asked suddenly. The question must have taken him off guard because he stared at her for a minute before answering. "Left."

"Ok." With that she closed the bathroom door and stood there until Lex was gone.

* * *

She didn't sleep. She was wide awake when the door to the bedroom opened three hours later. She closed her eyes and pretended though. She heard him move around, heard him change his clothes, take off his watch, go to the bathroom and then set the alarm. Then she felt him climb in the bed, adjust the covers and situate himself. Ten minutes later his breathing had slowed, equaled out and he was asleep.

* * *

"You should come down to breakfast." Lex told her as he buttoned his shirt the next morning. "You need to eat something."

"No thank you." Chloe said sitting in the bed, not bothering to move.

"The announcement will come out today." Lex told her. "A lot of people will have a lot of questions." She avoided his gaze as he tied the tie around his neck. "Do you have an answer for them?" He asked. "Do you have an answer for Clark? Or Lois?"

"Lionel's already given me my script." Chloe said getting out of the bed and going into her closet. "We've been secretly dating, on and off for years and finally we're making it official." Chloe said.

It was strange, arriving to work with Lex, but by the knowing looks on the faces of everyone they passed, news travelled fast, especially in a news room. She smiled and gushed about her oh so surprise wedding and showed off her ring as long as she could before going into Lex's office just to get away from everyone.

"Lois has entered the building." Lex said. "Are you ready?"

"Does it matter?" Chloe asked and Lex realized then that those three words were most likely going to permeate their entire relationship.

"Miss Lane." His secretary buzzed a few minutes later.

"Show time." Lex said leaning over Chloe's shoulder.

"Good you're both here. Have you figured out who it was?"

"Who what was?" Lex asked.

"What? You don't even read your own paper?" Lois said slapping the paper down on the counter, the announcement taking up the front page. "So were we hacked or was this an inside job? Derik that creepy kid in the copy department that picks his nose maybe."

"I'm sorry?" Lex grabbed the paper and opened it up to look at the article more fully.

"Ok, seriously you're both being way to calm about this, it's not just us, someone else picked it up off the wire, it's in the New York Times and the Boston Globe, pretty much ever town that has a paper, not to mention it's all over the news." Lois slowed her tirade as she noticed Chloe who was scratching her nose, with her left hand, that happened to have the rock of Gibraltar sitting on it, right on top of a wedding band. "What the hell?" She asked reaching out and snatching Chloe's hand quickly.

"What is this?" Lois asked.

"I'm sorry Lois." Chloe said to her. "I wanted to tell you…but everything happened so fast."

"No, no, no, you guys can't be…you aren't seriously…"

"Lois." Lex said snapping her attention from Chloe to him. "Being Chloe's closest family member, I hope you can be happy for us."

"This is a really unfunny joke and it needs to stop now." Lois said dropping Chloe's hand and backing away.

"Lois." Chloe said, pleading with her almost. "It's not a joke."

"You can't be married to Lex Luther." Lois scoffed. "Seriously?"

"Seriously." Chloe said.

"This is a meteor thing isn't it?" Lois asked, the smile back on her face. "You two were infected with something."

"I'm not infected." Chloe said. She looked up at Lex who was smiling encouragingly down at her. "I love him."

"No." Lois said. "This isn't right. You're my cousin, we're like sisters, you would have told me, I would have been there…"

"I knew how you felt about him." Chloe said.

"You still would have told me." Lois shook her head. "We're family…I would have tried to at least understand."

"Lois can you please." Chloe walked around the desk and Lois took a step back.

"You knew this was wrong." Lois told her. "That's why you didn't tell me. Were you afraid I'd talk you out of it?"

"No." Chloe pleaded with her.

"Something's wrong here, and I'm going to figure out what it is." Lois glared at Lex before walking out of the office and slamming the door.

Chloe's head fell down to her chest and Lex stood there, wondering what, if anything he could do in this situation. Her head popped back up and she turned to him, her fake smile stuck painfully on her face. "Please tell me its lunch time."

* * *

The rest of the day wasn't any easier, Chloe had to pretend to be a newly happily married woman and the longer the day went on, the more people that found out about it, the less people Chloe managed to count as a friend. She felt a strong wind pick up, ruffle some of her papers and she closed her eyes, Clark was gone, to the fortress to complete his training and she'd know if he was back so the wind could only have been caused by one other person. The look on his face nearly broke her heart as his eyes scanned over her and landed on her left hand. "So it's true?" He asked coldly.

"Bart…"

"I…" Chloe stood up and grabbed his arm taking him to the copy room where they couldn't be overheard. She closed the door and shut the blinds and turned to him. "How?"

"I knew you guys wouldn't understand." Chloe said helplessly.

"Why on earth would you think something like that?" Bart said sarcastically. "He only kidnapped and tortured me, oh, and AC, oh and he turned Victor into a computer." Bart put his hands on his hips. "Not to mention all the other nameless people he's kidnapped and experimented on."

"Bart please…" Chloe pleaded with him.

"33.1 Chloe…if I recall, you were a guest there at one time yourself." He reminded her, as if she needed any reminding. "He used your mother, he used you."

"I wish there was some way that I could explain this to you so that you'd see…"

"There isn't." Bart crossed his arms over his chest. "There isn't an excuse in the world that would make me see. The article said you'd been dating on and off for years." He looked up at her. "So what was the year and half that you spent with us, trying to take him down then? Was it revenge? Pissed off about a bad break up?" His eyes got wide as if he suddenly realized something. "Or were you playing us the whole time?"

"God no." Chloe shook her head violently.

"Were you on his side? Spying for him while we trusted you like idiots." Bart screamed at her.

"Never, you have to believe that."

"I really don't Chloe." Bart said taking a deep breath. "They haven't found Oliver's body yet." He said forcing her to meet his eyes with his stare. "Come to think of it, you were the last one to see him, to be seen with him. Did he figure you out?"

"What?" Chloe asked confused.

"Is that what happened?" Bart's voice was shaking with rage now. "He figured out who you really were, where you're loyalties really lied. Is that why you did it?"

"Did what?" Chloe asked, afraid of what she had a feeling he was about to accuse her off.

"Is that why you killed Oliver?" He said. "To keep your dirty little secret."

Chloe couldn't take it anymore. Lois' anger and confusion she could understand, the snide comments from the other reporters and interns in the office, she could take no problem, even the cold shoulder she was getting from her father she could live with but this was unacceptable. Before she even realized she was doing it, her hand connected with the side of Bart's face, the slap was so loud, she was sure they could hear it outside, even over the noise of the computers and conversations. "I'm glad to see that my reputation is so easily tossed out the window. The fact that you could even think I had anything to do with…"

"You don't get to take the moral high ground anymore." Bart interrupted her. "I guess you didn't read the fine print when you signed your soul away. You're a Luther now Chloe." He shook his head and rubbed his cheek. "I hope it was worth it." In a second he was gone, from the room, from the building, and Chloe knew, from her life.

She grabbed her stomach and walked to the door, she needed someplace private, she needed to be alone, in piece for just a minute. She saw Lex's office and without thinking walked in there. He was on the phone but he hung up when he saw her. "Chloe?" He stood up slowly as she raced to his trash can and threw up the lunch that he'd bought her. She laid on the ground for a while, the cold of the trashcan calming her down slowly as Lex kept a safe distance away. Bart was back at headquarters by now, telling everyone what had happened, what he'd "discovered". AC wouldn't believe him, not until he talked to Chloe himself, so she could expect a visit from him relatively soon. Victor wouldn't take much convincing, Bart's confirmation that Chloe was wearing a wedding ring would likely condemn her to the ninth circle of hell as far as Victor was concerned. She threw up again and she heard Lex move around behind her.

This hurt, like nothing she'd ever felt before, her insides were twisted so much she wasn't sure she'd ever be able to stand up straight again. She understood the confusion, even the anger, but the mistrust she didn't get that. She couldn't believe that never once did it cross Bart's mind that she might have another reason for doing what she was doing, not that she could tell him he was right, but the fact that the only conclusion he could even jump to was that she had turned against them, betrayed them for her own selfish reasons really hurt. This is what they thought of her, in a way it was good to know, but it didn't hurt any less.

"Are you finished?" Lex asked and she lifted her head to see him standing there with a washcloth and a bottle of water.

"Sorry." Chloe pulled herself up and grabbed the items from his outstretched hands, wiping her face with the cloth and sipping the water slowly.

"Would you like to tell me…"

"No." Chloe shook her head. "I'm fine, thank you." She threw the rag in the trash can and walked out of his office, sipping the water. She made it to her desk somehow and managed to go through the motions or a regular work day. She smiled and showed off her ring and gushed about the sudden wedding to anyone who asked. When the day was over she was exhausted, mentally and physically. Lex was still in his office working as the Stephanie packed her things.

"You still here?" She asked surprised.

"Yeah." Chloe smiled. "Waiting on Lex."

"You'd think the day after his wedding, he'd knock off a little early."

"You'd think." Chloe smiled genially and relaxed. She was alone, finally, if she smiled anymore, she was sure her cheeks would catch on fire.

She took a deep breath and walked in the storage room to grab a file box and then back to her desk. "What are you doing?" Lex asked.

"Cleaning out my desk." She answered putting her folders in the bottom and then grabbing her picture frames, wondering if she should even bother saving the pictures or not.

"I can see that." Lex walked over and sat on the edge of the desk beside her. "Why?"

"Didn't you read my contract?" Chloe asked surprised, she'd read his, she wanted to make sure she knew what he was and was not allowed to do. "Luther woman don't work. I just…I didn't want to do this when everyone was still here."

Lex didn't' say anything, he just sat and waited for her to finish and then walked her out to the car. "Our first full day as a married couple." Chloe said for want of conversation when they got in the car. "How do you think it went?"

"Pretty good actually." Lex said, not looking at her. "What do you think?"

"I think it's going to plan." Chloe said figuring that in the span of twelve hours she'd gained a husband and lost her job, her friends, her family, and her reputation.

"Is that good or bad?" Lex finally turned to look at her; he already knew the answer though.

"Does it matter?" Chloe turned away from him to look out the window.

* * *

Chloe couldn't sleep and she was tired of sitting in the room pretending to sleep when Lex finally decided to come to bed at night, that had been her routine for three months and it was getting old. She figured she could explore her new house, Lex hadn't specifically said that anything was off limits, she should probably ask about that, he had to know she would snoop. "Miss Sullivan." Chloe turned around startled; she still hadn't learned all the names yet.

"Jennifer?" She ventured.

The woman smiled at her. "Jessica. Was there something I could help you with?"

"No, I'm just…I can't sleep." Chloe shrugged.

"Mr. Luther's in the study." Jessica offered. Chloe looked up at the staircase to the second floor and then down the hall. She nodded and walked toward the study, if this had been any other time, she wouldn't have hesitated to look first and ask questions second but she had to live here, she couldn't run back home and avoid Lex for a few weeks, hoping he's cool off so it was time to discuss boundaries. She could hear Lex's cool even voice, and she'd known him long enough to know that he was pissed.

"This really is getting old." Lex said, sounding bored, but he was on the edge of anger, Chloe could tell, she'd been on the receiving end of that tone before. "I'm sorry that you seem to think that I'm this evil mastermind that everything I do is somehow connected to you but it's not." Chloe crept closer.

"I'm supposed to believe that Lex?" Clark's voice boomed out and Chloe jumped three feet in the air. Clark was back, back from the fortress, his training complete. Lois must have told him what was going on.

"You're going to believe whatever you want to believe." Lex said. "No matter what explanation I give you."

"How about the truth." Clark offered. "You could try that and go from there."

"I've done nothing but give you the truth and you throw it back in my face." Lex said his voice more in the angry than the bored category now.

"Do you even know what the truth is anymore Lex?" Clark screamed back and Chloe figured it was time to face the music. She pushed open the doors and both men froze.

"Chloe." Lex said a little more calm now. "I didn't realize you were awake."

"I can't sleep." She wrapped her robe tighter around her body and glared at the two men. "There are these two maniacs screaming at each other.

"I'm sorry." Lex sighed. "Clark was just leaving."

"No I wasn't." Clark said turning to Chloe, hurt, anger, confusion, all written right on his face. "What are you doing here? What's going on? I was only gone for six months and now you're married to Lex?"

"I'm tired of explaining myself." Chloe deflated a little. "And I'm certainly not going to do it at two in the morning." That seemed to take Clark off guard for the moment. He must have expected to rush in and save the day, return home the hero dragging a grateful Chloe in tow, so happy to be saved. "Now if you wouldn't mind, I'd like my husband to come to bed at a decent hour tonight."

"Chloe!" Clark said surprised.

"Goodnight Clark." Chloe reached behind her and opened the door to the study. Clark looked between Chloe and Lex before sighing and walking to the door.

"This isn't over." He said to Chloe as he passed her.

"Perish the thought." She replied sarcastically before closing the door after him.

"What are you really doing up?" Lex asked confused.

"I really couldn't sleep." Chloe shrugged walking further into the room and sitting on the couch. "I was going to go exploring but I figured I'd better get the ground rules out of the way first."

"Ground rules?" Lex asked confused.

"Yeah you know, what rooms are off limits, where I can and can't go." Chloe shrugged.

"You never struck me as a person who paid attention to "off limits"." Lex lifted up the brandy, offering her a glass. "In any case, there are no off limits."

"No off limits?" Chloe raised an eyebrow. "You do know who you're talking to?"

"My wife?" Lex asked sitting down opposite her. Chloe glared at him. "I've actually given this a lot of thought." Lex set his glass down on the side table. "Whatever my father has, whatever he's holding over your head it's not about you. You're not that type of person Chloe, not that I take much offense but if I know you as well as I think I do, you'd rather go to jail, come clean, than be stuck in this marriage with me." Chloe shrugged, he was pretty much right. "So it has to have something to do with friends or family, or both." Chloe squirmed in her seat. "Don't worry I have bigger things on my mind then finding out your secret. The thing is, you are actually in a position right now that you can't do anything to me. For the first time in my life I don't have to worry about how much Chloe Sullivan knows because whatever you find out…you can't do anything about it. It's kind of refreshing actually no matter what I do, I can't screw this marriage up."

"Where are you going with this?" Chloe asked confused.

"I'm going to try something different." Lex leaned back in his seat. "A marriage with no secrets, none at all. Anything you want to know about my work, anything you want to know about my home, my family, ask away."

"How do you know as soon as your father dies I won't leave your ass and write a tell all." Chloe asked him.

"I'm sure he has some sort of contingency in case of his death." Lex brushed her off. "We're in this until death do us part, not until it does Lionel." Chloe hadn't thought of that. She was imagining that she only had to wait around until Lionel kicked the bucket and then it was divorce city, but she had to have known, in the back of her mind that Lionel was smarter than that.

"So I can go where ever I want?" Chloe asked. "Look through your files, get on your computer?"

"They're your files now." Lex shrugged. "You're computer."

"Huh." Chloe said frowning. "Where's the fun in that." Lex smirked at her. "I mean half the excitement in investigating is doing it in secret, doing something you aren't supposed to do."

"I thought you might feel that way." Lex shrugged. "None the less." He stood up. "I have some work left to do."

The next morning at breakfast Chloe surprised Lex when she came down fully dressed and ready to face the day. After her confrontation with Clark last night and realizing that she'd spent the better part of three months hold up in the mansion, she really wanted to get out. "I'm going out." Chloe said pulling her jacket on. "Into town." She'd avoided the denizens of Smallville for months now, she couldn't be expected to hold out much longer, especially when Hill had yet to perfect her caramel latte. "Do you need anything?" She asked Lex.

"Bring back a couple of pounds of coffee." He said without looking up. They'd perfected their roles by now, perfect couple, even in the house, the staff had no clue, her friends and family had no clue. They had what could possibly be described as a tentative friendship, an understanding between two people that they were stuck together and they could fester in built up animosity or they could just accept it and try to be relatively happy, as happy as they could be in this situation.

"Sure thing." Chloe said. "Car keys?" Lex's head popped up at the request and Chloe smiled. "You're car is my car isn't it?"

He dug in his pocket and tossed her the keys. "Drive carefully." He stood up. "Sometimes it sticks in third, and you really have to pay attention when you're taking corners."

"You want to drive?" Chloe asked smirking.

Lex seemed to ponder this for a minute. "Actually we haven't been in town yet as a married couple." Chloe's face fell, she was hoping for some alone time, have a coffee at the Talon, hit the book store, be herself, not Lex's wife. "Let me get my coat." She sighed and stood waiting by the door as Lex got ready to leave; now she had to be Ms. Luther.

It was just as bad as she thought it would be. The stares, the whispers as she climbed out of Lex's car and took his offered arm. She would ignore it though, she had to ignore it otherwise she'd become a hermit and just being out in town made Chloe realize how much life she'd missed out on the past few months hiding away. "Can I drive it home?" She asked Lex as they walked down the street arm in arm.

"Maybe." Lex said. "It depends on how much coffee you drink."

"If I promise to only have one?" She asked.

"Maybe." Lex emphasized as he opened the door to the Talon for her. She slipped in and she could have sworn that it got suddenly quiet, as if all talking and all motion stopped when she walked in, like in the old time westerns.

"I thought that only happened in the movies." Chloe whispered as she took off her jacket and sat at a booth. For one second she contemplated getting the coffee to go but changed her mind instantly. This was her town, no matter her last name and she wasn't going to be run out by angry villagers with pitchforks.

"Caramel latte?" Lex asked as she situated herself in the booth.

"And a blueberry scone please?" She smiled, putting on the required show for the masses.

"Coming right up." Lex leaned down and kissed her softly and her stomach wobbled, she still wasn't used to that. Lex was a natural at faking it in public, subtle touching, kissing, all the intimate things came naturally to him. Chloe was still getting used to holding his arm or allowing him to take her hand, she figured she'd be years away from being comfortable with the kissing.

He wasn't gone two seconds when the first one showed up. "Congratulations Chloe." A girl smiled at her, standing at the edge of the table as if afraid to approach any further. It was Mindy something or other, they'd gone to high school together, and Mindy had never spoken two words to Chloe before.

"Thanks Mindy." Chloe smiled.

"Can we see the ring?" She asked anxiously. Chloe realized that she had two other girls, more people from school, with her. Chloe held out her hand and they squealed and gawked and she smiled and blushed.

Chloe vaguely heard the bell ring to indicate someone had entered the Talon. It wasn't until everyone got inexplicably silent again that she realized this wasn't going to be the relaxing foray into town that she had hoped for. She turned around to see Lana and Clark standing there. "Wendy could you give us a minute?" Lana asked.

"Sure thing." Wendy mumbled and Chloe heard one of the other girls whisper. "The ex wife and the new wife, show down at the Talon." Chloe sighed and resigned herself for this talk.

"Sure, please, interrupt me and invade my personal space without asking, no problem." Chloe muttered as Lana and Clark slid into the booth across from her.

She looked over at the bar and Lex inclined his head as if to say, "You need me to come over there?"

Chloe shook her head once to tell him, "I've got this."

"Chloe." Lana smiled sweetly at her and Chloe was sure that Lana would deliver the news of the pending apocalypse with a smile.

"Lana." Chloe smiled back. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad, maybe this wasn't going to be one of those talks.

"I just want to start this off by saying we're your friends." Nope, Chloe was wrong it was going to be that bad. "And we're not here to judge you or to blame you."

"Blame me?" Chloe looked between the two of them confused. _Oliver_, she thought, _blame me for Oliver_. So they'd been talking to Bart.

"The thing is Chloe, I'm worried about you."

"You're worried about me?" Chloe said nodding her head confused. "Is that why this is the first time we've spoken since I got married."

"I…" Lana sighed. "I wasn't sure what to say to you."

"Congratulations." Chloe offered. "This is so great, I'm so happy for you, any of those would have sufficed."

"I can't say that." Lana shook her head. "Because I'm not happy."

"You're worried." Chloe finished.

"Exactly." Lana smiled.

"No." Chloe shook her head.

"No?" Lana asked confused.

"No." Chloe sat up straighter. "You're not worried about me Lana. I mean if you were my friend, and if you were worried about me, you would have shown up at the Daily Planet the day the wedding was announced like Lois. You wouldn't have hidden away and pretended you didn't know what to say."

"I am your friend." Lana said. "And I know Chloe, better than anyone. I know what he's like, I know about the fancy diners, and the expensive gifts and the trips to Europe…"

"Because that's what your relationship with Lex was about right Lana." Chloe said. "The gifts and the dinners and the trips, because you didn't love him." Lana seemed to clam up. "You told me the day before your wedding but when you were up there, standing at the alter in your wedding gown, I was standing beside you."

"Chloe." Lana said frustrated.

"I think that maybe you're really here because Clark asked you to come." Chloe turned to look at Clark. "I think if Clark has something to say to me, he should talk to me."

"I don't understand any of this Chloe. When I left you were with Oliver and the other guys and everything was fine, and when I get back, everything is so messed up." Clark sighed. "Oliver's dead, you're married to Lex. Lex Luther. The same man who kidnapped you twice. The same man who kidnapped your mother."

"I'm well aware of his past." Chloe brushed him off.

"And I'm well aware of your past." Clark pointed out. "You really expect me to believe that you and Lex have been having a secret relationship for years behind my back and you never told me?"

"That's what makes it a secret relationship." Chloe scoffed and the table was silent.

"What happened to Oliver Chloe?" Clark asked after minute. Chloe closed her eyes, yep, they'd talked to Bart.

"Why don't you tell me." Chloe said through clenched teeth. "Popular theory is that I killed him. That I've been working as a double agent this whole time." Clark didn't say anything, he just looked at her. "Ouch." Chloe stood up and Clark grabbed her elbow, stopping her. She turned and saw Lex out of the corner of her eye walking toward her, an angry look on his face. She held out a hand to stop him. "Look I can separate my relationship with Lex from my relationship with you; obviously I'm the only one. I didn't tell him your secret." She yanked her arm away. "I never had, I never would but you're not going to take my word for it, so what ever I say, doesn't even matter." She turned to walk away and Lex met her at the door. He must have read her mind because he had two to go cups in his hands and for the first time Chloe felt what must have been affection for him. He grabbed her arm gently and steered her to the door. Chloe stopped and turned around. "You're never going to be able to accept this are you?"

Clark looked from Chloe to Lex and then back to Chloe. "No."

"Well, at least you're honest." She shrugged and walked outside with Lex.

"Do you want to hit the bookstore now?" Lex asked.

"No." Chloe said. "You know what I just kind of want to go home."

"Sure." Lex nodded and hand her the coffee cup. She wrapped her hands around it and inhaled, the aroma calming her a little. "You want to drive?" He dangled the car keys in front of her face and she smiled slightly.

"Really?" Chloe took the keys.

"Yeah, really. My car is your car right?" Lex held the drivers side door open for her and she climbed in. He jogged over to the passenger side and sat down, pulling his seatbelt on and double then triple checking to make sure it was tight.

Chloe laughed a little and set her coffee in the cup holder. "So I've never driven a standard before…" Chloe put the key in and turned the car on and Lex's eyes went wide. "Just kidding, you act like I'm going to, I don't know, drive it off a bridge." Lex turned to her and glared. Chloe stepped on the clutch and put the car in first. "Relax, that's your thing." She checked the road behind her then pealed out of the parking space, speeding off down the street as Lex closed his eyes tight.


	4. Chapter 4

* * *

A/N: Just like Chapter 3 this is a second posting, nothing different, just that I'm an idot and accidently deleated the old one.

* * *

Chloe avoided the town for the most part after the showdown with Lana and Clark, choosing to drive all the way to Metropolis if she felt the need to shop, or get a cup of coffee. Metropolis was much better for Chloe anyway. People knew who she was there, but it didn't bring a stigma like it did in Smallville, in fact it was completely the opposite. She was greeted by name at every shop she went to, seated at the best tables in restaurants and given the best treatment simply because she was the wife of Lex Luther.

Chloe started to understand what Lana meant when she talked about the gifts and the trips and the diners. Chloe accompanied Lex on business trips to Rome and Tokyo, Paris and Hong Kong. She stayed at the finest hotels and experienced the best of everything that the world had to offer. It wasn't nearly as bad as she thought it was going to be, being Ms. Luther. It wasn't the life she'd envisioned for herself, it wasn't the life she envisioned for anyone but it was hers and she was trying to make the most of it. As far as the world knew she was happy, deliriously happy, completely over the moon in love with her husband and he was just as in love with her.

But she wasn't happy, she was pretty far from happy, she was getting to be a good actress, she was sure that even Lex didn't know how completely miserable she was. She'd lost all her friends, her family, everything and Lex was completely oblivious to all of that. There were times that she could forget what she was doing, why she was doing it, pretend that she was just a normal girl having a normal day. Today wasn't one of those days. She'd woken up that morning in a bad mood and it just went downhill from there. She was supposed to be going to a hospital fundraiser that night and she wanted nothing more than to lay in bed and pull the covers over her head. She missed her hair appointment and the drycleaners didn't have her dress ready so she just decided to skip the rest of her day, coffee with her "friends", translation, people she'd met through Lex, a nail appointment.

She left her doctor's office, her new prescription in her hand and she prayed that this one would actually work. She'd had insomnia for almost a year now and this was the third prescription the doctor had tried with her and she was so tired of not sleeping.

"Ms. Luther." Chloe looked up from her purse confused, the voice sounded familiar, coming from the alley.

"Yes?" She stepped further into the alley as the figure stepped out from the shadows. "Dinah?" Chloe squinted.

"You married Lex?"

Chloe sighed. "That's old news Dinah." Chloe headed for her car only to have a hand grab her elbow, stopping her progress.

"I've been away." Dinah retorted.

"You did kind of drop off the face of the earth for a while." Chloe chose her words carefully, trying to control the situation as she jerked her arm away and turned to leave again.

"I was busy." Dinah stared straight at her. "Looking for Oliver."

Chloe froze. "Oliver's dead." Chloe's whole face shut down then. "He's been dead for a year."

"And not a moment too soon for you huh?" Dinah smirked.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Chloe turned to glare at her.

"How does it feel?" Dinah stepped closer. "Betraying his memory, living against everything he ever stood for?"

"I'm not betraying his memory." Chloe ground her teeth, trying to stay calm.

"You're not?" Dinah looked confused for a second. "So then you aren't married to his mortal enemy? You aren't living with the man who tried to kill all of us on more than one occasion?"

"You don't know what you're talking about." Chloe said. "So maybe you want to just stop talking."

"He loved you." Dinah called after Chloe. "Did you know that?" Chloe closed her eyes and turned to face Dinah again. "You didn't did you, but maybe you hoped…"

"Shut up." Chloe screamed at her.

"Did you never wonder why it didn't work out with us? I mean I'm an attractive girl, he's an attractive guy." Dinah smiled. "We both enjoy the same past time, bringing people to justice. You were the one who introduced us, you thought we'd hit it off." She sighed. "But I realized very quickly that there was only room for one blonde in his life. The way he talked to you, the way he treated you, so different from the way he treated the rest of us. You were so special to him, his Sidekick, his Watchtower. I'd catch him watching you when you weren't looking, his eyes followed you through every room. God, the two of you together, it was like everything else disappeared, like you two were the only people on the planet. His is first concern was for your safety, it took all four of us to convince him it was ok to let you go with him and AC to that boat, I guess we were wrong though, I guess you had all of us fooled, even him."

"Please don't." Chloe said. She couldn't take it if someone else accused her of killing Oliver. "Not today." Chloe said, her eyes pleading with the woman.

"Yes today." Dinah shook her head. "He's been dead a year, one year ago today he, well I guess you're really the only person that can tell us what happened."

"I…" Chloe didn't know what to do, what to say. As much as she wanted to she couldn't tell Dinah what really happened that night, she couldn't tell anyone.

"You were the last one to see him alive Chloe, we all know that." Dinah took a step forward. "The both of you were fine when you left AC, and then it all went to hell." She glared at Chloe. "Tell me what happened."

"I killed him." Chloe said softly. She'd replayed the events of that night over and over in her head so many times she was sure the images were burned into her brain. Dinah had taken a step back shocked. "It was my fault. If I had listened to him or…" Chloe trailed off thinking about it. She'd begged to come along on the trip. Victor was busy with Bart doing something else and Chloe was the only one who could get into the computer system. Oliver should have said no, should have made her stay at the Clock tower but they weren't sure they'd be able to get in remotely. She shouldn't have stopped for Lionel, she should have left when Oliver told her, she should have realized what was going on before it was too late. "You want someone to blame for Oliver's death, fine, blame me, I did it, it's my fault." Chloe said, her voice so shaky it was almost hard to understand her. "But don't for one second, ever think that I don't know that, that I don't blame myself every day, that I don't wish I could trade places with him. It should have been me." Chloe couldn't control the tears now. "It should have been me but it wasn't and now Oliver's gone forever and I have to live with that for the rest of my life."

Dinah recovered from her speech rather quickly and her new found anger at Chloe's confession kept her going. "And how you live with that is with Lex Luther?"

"Did you ever think," Chloe laughed humorlessly. "That maybe that's my penance?"

"If it is." Dinah said coldly. "It's not enough." She turned around and walked away.

"I know." Chloe called after her before digging her keys out of her purse and heading back to the mansion. She had a party to get ready for.

* * *

Four hours later Lex walked into the bedroom and heard the water running in the bathroom. He pulled his tie off and looked at his watch. "We've got to be out of here in an hour Chloe." He called out to her. She didn't answer, so either her headphones were on, or she was ignoring him. Either one could be a plausible option at the moment, she was ignoring him a lot lately and there wasn't a day that she didn't walk around the house with her iPhone plugged into her ears. Lex walked to the closet and pulled out his suit then turned to the bathroom door and tried one more time. "Did you decide? Red dress or white?" He called to her trying to figure out what tie to wear. Again she didn't answer. He turned back to the closet, figuring that he'd just grab a tie last when he heard the sound of breaking glass come from the bathroom.

"Chloe?" He asked concerned and walked to the door, only to slide on the wet floor. He looked down and saw water trickling out from under the bathroom door. "Chloe!" Lex screamed, banging on the door now. She still didn't answer. He grabbed the knob and turned it but it was locked. He took a step back and kicked the door open and hurried into the bathroom only to stop dead in his tracks. It felt like his heart was pounding in his ears. The water kept running into the overflowing tub as Chloe sat back, her eyes closed, oblivious. One of her hands was hanging over the side, shattered pieces of glass that were once a wine glass lay on the floor under her fingertips. An empty wine bottle sat on the edge of the bathtub, next to a bottle of Chloe's sleeping pills. "Chloe." Lex reached in the water and pulled her out. He placed a hand under her nose, she was breathing but it was shallow.

"Come on." He half carried, half dragged her to the toilet and bent her over, hesitating only for a second before shoving his fingers down her throat. She coughed, gagged and then threw up. Lex looked down, didn't seem satisfied and turned back to her. "One more." He said quietly before shoving his fingers in her mouth again. She seemed to be coming around but she wasn't lucid yet so he grabbed her and walked into the shower, turning the cold on full blast as she woke up coughing and confused. Lex held her in place as she tried to get away and pulled the hair from her face. "That's it." He said as she started to stand a little on her own. "That's it."

"It's my fault." She mumbled as Lex carried her into the bedroom.

"What's your fault?" Lex asked as he sat her on the bed.

"I killed him." Chloe whispered and Lex froze before grabbing a towel and dried her off.

"Coffee?" Chloe asked hopefully as she pulled the robe tighter around her.

"Hot water with lemon." Lex said handing her the coffee mug. "It'll help your throat and rehydrate you. You shouldn't have any caffeine for another day at least, until you're sure everything's out of your system." Chloe just nodded and sipped the hot water as Lex stirred the fire. "Is it that bad?" He asked, not looking at her. "Living with me? Being married to me?"

Chloe rolled her eyes and set her mug down. "It was an accident Lex." Chloe told him.

He turned to her and stared for a minute. "People don't take six sleeping pills by accident." He informed her. "Then follow that up with a bottle of wine."

"The two the Doctor told me to take weren't working so I took three." Chloe said. "And then I decided to take a bath and I had a glass of wine and I forgot I'd already taken some and I took three more." She ran her fingers through her hair. "Accident."

"And the wine?" Lex sat down across from her. "Was that an accident too or do you frequently polish off entire bottles of wine by yourself at four in the afternoon?"

"I had a bad day." Chloe glared at him. "It was an accident, I appreciate your help, it won't happen again." She stood up and walked to the bed. "Now I'm tired if you don't mind."

Lex just looked at her and nodded before walking out of the room. He was halfway to the stairs when he decided that in fact he did mind and that they needed to talk about this. He walked back to their bedroom, determined to have this conversation when he stopped at the door. He could hear her in there, sobbing, huge, racking cries that probably shook her whole body, he backed away slowly feeling as if he'd intruded on something.

* * *

Lex walked into the bedroom a few hours later and froze standing at the foot of the bed. Chloe was actually sleeping. This was the first time ever he'd seen her sleep. He wasn't fooled, he knew all the other times he'd come up to bed she'd been pretending and this was good, this was nice. He sat down at the edge of the bed and just watched her for a minute. He wasn't prepared for the feelings he got when he busted through that bathroom door and saw her lying there. Regardless of how they'd been brought together, they were stuck together and though it wasn't his ideal situation, he was trying to make the best of it. But to think that she was so miserable she would do that, it really hit him hard. She swore it was an accident and he wanted to believe her, he may have believed her if it hadn't been for her confession. "I killed him." Lex knew Chloe and although there was a time when she stood in front of him with a rocket launcher and pulled the trigger with no hesitation, Chloe couldn't kill someone. Obviously she believed she had, or felt responsible at any rate.

Responsible. The thought thundered around Lex's brain, making him realize something, Chloe was his responsibility, and if tonight was any indication, he wasn't holding up his end of the bargain. Nowhere in his contract with Lionel did it state that Chloe had to be happy and Lex never intended to go out of his way to make it so. But after what happened, he knew the last thing he wanted was for her to be miserable. He'd told Chloe that he figured this was the one marriage that he couldn't screw up and one level he was right, she couldn't leave him, divorce him, but driving her to the point of overdosing on sleeping pills and wine does not a successful marriage make. It was time to realize that no matter the circumstances, he was her husband and that had to come first. He had to do better for her and for him and he realized rather quickly that the first step to that was to get her out of this town.

The next day Chloe was down to breakfast before Lex, he hadn't gotten to be until much later, after making the decision to get Chloe out of Smallville he'd set about drawing up a plan, figuring out the logistics. He made it into the kitchen just in time to see Hill setting a steaming cup of coffee in front of Chloe. He slid in smoothly and picked it up, taking a sip for himself. "No coffee remember." Lex told her and she sighed.

"Right." She looked up at him. "Tea?"

"No caffeine." He shook his head.

"Hill, can I get a nice steaming cup of water with lemon." Chloe asked annoyed. "Doctor's orders."

"Everything's ok Ms. Luther?" Hill asked setting a kettle to boil.

"Fine." Chloe smiled at her. "I'm trying out a new allergy medication, it doesn't mix well with coffee, so chances are it won't last long."

"Not the way you go through the stuff." Hill laughed at her. "Can I get you anything to eat?"

"No thank you…" Chloe started to say and Lex made another face. "Oh apparently you can." She said surprised.

"Full breakfast thanks Hill." Lex said to the woman and turned to Chloe. "You need something in your stomach."

Chloe waited until Hill had left the eating area and raised an eyebrow. "And you became my mother when?" Chloe asked, but her tone was amused.

"I was thinking we could spend the weekend in Metropolis, air out the Penthouse." Lex ignored her question and opened the paper, passing the front page to Chloe as he went for the business section.

"Ok." Chloe said confused as Hill came back in with a plate of toast. Chloe grabbed a piece and took a bite studying Lex.

"Maybe see a show." He offered.

"Right." Chloe grabbed for the jam, picking one at random as she watched Lex flipped through the pages.

"Do you have any preferences?" He asked and she stared at him. "For the show."

"How about a musical." Chloe said slowly testing him.

"That's fine, any particular one?"

"Mama Mia." Chloe offered and Lex just looked at her before nodding.

"I'll get the tickets today." He said.

"Ok." Chloe dropped the toast on the table. "What's going on here? You're babying me with the breakfast and the caffeine and now the show."

"What do you mean?" Lex lowered the paper. "I like a good show every now and then."

"Really?" Chloe crossed her arms over her chest. "You do realize you just agreed to go see a musical with me, based on the songs of Swedish 70's pop group ABBA?" Lex couldn't hide the cringe. "That's what I thought." Chloe smiled. "I'm fine Lex, all this isn't necessary."

"I just thought you might like to get out of town, maybe see a show." He shrugged.

"Ok." Chloe eyed him carefully and Hill brought in a plate stacked high with eggs and bacon and sausage. "Avenue Q." Chloe said after a minute.

"The one with the puppets?" Lex looked over at her.

"Funny puppets." Chloe said picking up a piece of bacon and taking a bite.

"Funny puppets." Lex thought about it for a minute and then shrugged.

* * *

"Come on, you thought that was hilarious." Chloe said as they walked to the elevator. "Admit it."

"It was humorous." Lex agreed as he opened the elevator.

"No Lex." Chloe said as they walked in the elevator. "It was funny."

"There's a difference?" He asked.

"There's a big difference." Chloe rolled her eyes. "I heard you laugh a few times." She nudged his shoulder. "You know, I don't think I've ever heard you laugh."

"I'm not a robot Chloe I can enjoy something hum…funny." He told her as the elevator stopped and they stepped out into the Penthouse. Chloe stood in the entrance for a minute taking it all in.

"Wow." She said admiring the three hundred and sixty degree view of Metropolis that greeted her. She walked over to the French doors and turned to Lex for permission. He nodded and she opened them walking outside and breathing deep. "This is amazing." She smiled.

"Still a city girl at heart aren't you?" He asked coming up behind her.

"Always." Chloe smiled over her shoulder. "You can see the whole city from here."

"It's relaxing isn't it?" Lex asked.

"Very." Chloe nodded.

"What would you feel about living here?" He turned to face her.

"Here?" She looked back into the apartment. "In Metropolis?"

"Yeah." Lex nodded. "Get out of Smallville. I think it would be good for you."

Chloe opened her mouth to protest, to say that she was fine in Smallville, but she wasn't and Lex knew that she wasn't. He was extending a way out, an option. "That could be good." Chloe admitted.

"Good." Lex nodded and looked back out at the view. "I'll arrange everything. We can start right away."

"Ok." Chloe smiled. "Ok." She turned around. "I'm pretty beat, I'm going to turn in."

"Up the stairs, first door on the left." Lex told her and she walked back it the penthouse.

Lex followed her about an hour later after making a few phone calls. It wasn't until he was falling asleep to the sounds of Chloe's even breathing did he realize that there was no staff here, no one to pretend for and therefore no reason to sleep in the same bed, it had just become a habit.

* * *

The move to Metropolis was done quickly and quietly, with a minimal amount of fuss or bother. One day all of Chloe's things were in the closet at the Mansion, the next day they were in the closet at the Penthouse. She didn't have a problem leaving, the mansion had never felt like home, even after a year of living there, she couldn't help but think of it as the house that Lionel built. The Penthouse was decidedly Lex's however, sleek and modern from the living room furniture to the bathroom fixtures. It didn't feel like home to her either but she thought that maybe, with a little help, it could.

"I think I'm going to go shopping." Chloe said at breakfast their second morning there.

"Ok." Lex flipped a page in his paper.

"For furniture." Chloe added.

Lex lowered the paper confused. "Do we need furniture?" He asked confused.

"We need…different furniture." Chloe said. "This whole place is very you, but not very me."

"I see." Lex coughed. "So you want to change everything?"

"Not everything, the bedroom, the living room, the study."

"That's everything." He laughed.

"No, I'm letting you keep your office how it is."

"How generous of you." Lex sipped his coffee.

Suddenly Chloe's face fell. "Is that ok? I mean if you like the furniture…"

"No, it's fine Chloe, change whatever you like." He assured her.

She nodded and took another bite of her bagel. He'd done all this for her, moved to Metropolis and now he was letting her completely change his home to suit her needs. "Do you want to come with me?" She asked without looking up.

"To shop for furniture?" He asked.

"Well that way the place won't be all your stuff or all my stuff, it'll be, our stuff."

"Sure." Lex said after a pause. "Just let me clear my schedule for the day and then we can get started."

"Great." Chloe set the bagel on the table. "I'll go get dressed."

Shopping for furniture had been an interesting experience. Lex had learned that Chloe was rather "bohemian", her word not his, with her tastes. Where as his first instinct was to go to the more modern furniture show rooms, hers was to drag him to thrift shops and antique stores. After two hours where neither one managed to like a single piece of furniture the other picked out they enlisted the help of a store clerk in an act of desperation. An hour later the clerk was getting desperate.

"Nothing?" He asked when they entered another part of the store.

"I like those." Chloe pointed off to her side at a set of club chairs in the corner. She took a closer look at them and smiled. "I really like those." They were low to the ground with a short back, they didn't have arms and the material looked soft. Lex turned his attention to where Chloe was looking and tilted his head.

"I like those." He walked over to them and Chloe followed. They both sat down and looked at each other. They were comfortable. Chloe nodded and the Clerk jumped up and down like a school boy.

"Ok, what do you like about them?" He asked.

Chloe shrugged and said. "They look vintage." At the same time Lex said. "They look modern."

Chloe and Lex sighed, figuring that this was just going to spawn another three hours of discarding each other's furniture options. "No, no, no." The clerk smiled. "This is a good thing, a very good thing." He motioned for them to follow him and they rounded a corner to look at a display.

Chloe walked around the mock living room set, running her hands along the back of the couch as Lex studied the tables. "It's vintage." She smiled.

"It's modern." Lex corrected her.

"It's both." The clerk said. "It's modern reproduction of the 1950's Hollywood Regency style. What do you think?"

Lex looked over at Chloe and nodded. "We'll take it." He looked back down at the furniture. "Do you have anything in a bedroom?"

"Follow me." The Clerk smiled as Lex and Chloe made their way through a bedroom set, another living room set for the study, even a dining room set and a patio set.

Two days later Chloe was instructing the movers where to place all the new furniture and she sat back and admired her handiwork. "I like it." Lex said, coming up behind her.

"It's very Rat Pack." Chloe agreed with him. "Vegas Lounge, Sinatra and Martinis, Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin. I love it." She was smiling, a really big bright smile as they brought in the headboard and she excused herself to show them where it went. Lex looked after her as she bound up the steps, such a drastic change from the girl he pulled out of the bathtub a week ago.

"Lex!" Chloe screamed down after him. "Come tell me if you think this looks right."

"Be right there." He said taking the steps two at a time to inspect the new layout of the bedroom.

* * *

Life was better in Metropolis, Chloe was better in Metropolis. All of the friends that she'd met through Lex lived there and she was never in want of company. Someone always wanted to go shopping, or out to lunch, or to the spa. Though Chloe had never considered herself a spa girl, someone who did lunch, or even much of a shopper, having people to hang out with that didn't think her marriage was the second sign of the apocalypse was refreshing. Life was good, so obviously something had to go wrong. It was eleven o'clock in the morning and Leslie was waiting impatiently for Chloe to fill up her travel coffee mug so they could get going. "There are four hundred coffee houses in the city, why do I have to wait for you to make a pot at home?" Leslie pouted flipping through television channels.

"Because this is Hill's special blend and she refuses to tell me what's in it. She even keeps the coffee container padlocked." Chloe said waiting for the coffee line to finish before grabbing the pot and pouring it into her mug.

"I don't know how you can drink so much coffee anyway."

"I'm just wired that way." Chloe secured the lid on her mug and reached for her bag. "Where are we going again?"

"Robert is taking me to Monte Carlo for the weekend and I have no Monte Carlo clothes." Leslie said slowly. "Isn't that Lex's plant?"

"Huh?" Chloe turned to the television, sipping her coffee and froze. "Turn it up." She sat down on bar stool as Leslie turned up the volume. "An explosion rocked the LutherCorp Pharmaceuticals plant in Denver this morning, half of the plant was completely destroyed in the blast and the other half seriously damaged. Workers inside say the explosion happened in the storage area so luckily no one was working there but reports coming in from the field say that as of right now there are a staggering ninety injuries, ten of whom are critical and still more than twenty personnel unaccounted for."

"Hill!" Chloe screamed setting her coffee cup on the counter and walking into Lex's office. "Hill!"

"Chloe." Leslie walked after her. "What's going on?"

"I can't remember." Chloe said heading for Lex's desk and rifling through the files on top. "If it was New Mexico, Denver, Omaha or Denver, New Mexico Omaha." She said. "Hill!" She screamed again.

"I'm coming Ms. Luther, I'm coming."

"I don't understand." Leslie looked at Chloe confused.

"Lex was doing a tour of the plants and I don't know if he was in New Mexico or Denver today." Chloe said pulling out her phone and dialing a number frantically. "Pick up, pick up, pick up." She mumbled. "Hill, I need Mr. Luther's schedule, there was an accident at one of the plants and I need to know where he is." She hung up the phone in frustration. "He's not answering. Why isn't he answering?"

"Chloe, honey, relax." Leslie grabbed her shoulders and made her sit down. "Maybe he's on the plane. Maybe he was in New Mexico but he took a flight to Denver when he heard about the explosion."

"The plane." Chloe said. "The pilot." She pulled out her phone again and dialed a number. "Yes, Hello Jason this is Ms. Luther, look this is very important, where are you?" Chloe paused. "No I don't mean right this second I mean what city, where did you take Mr. Luther?" Chloe's eyes went huge. "Denver." She looked over at Leslie who grabbed Chloe's arm. "Thanks." She hung up and turned to Leslie. "He was in Denver, he was in Denver this morning and now he's not answering his phone."

"He's fine, this is Lex we're talking about." Leslie pulled Chloe up. "We're going to figure out what's going on here, and everything is going to be all right."

Chloe's phone rang and she answered before even looking to see who it was. "Lex?" She shook her head at Leslie and listened intently. "Ok, yeah, ok. Thank You." She hung up the phone. "That was Lex's driver. He was in the plant at the time of the explosion. He was, buried for a few hours under a bunch of ruble and they got him out. They're airlifting him to hospital right now."

"Ok, then let's go." Leslie said. "I'll call and get you on the first flight out to Denver and everything will be fine, I promise."

"Ok." Chloe nodded and allowed Leslie to lead her out of the house.

"No I don't think you understand." Chloe slammed her hands on the counter top. "I had one of the most horrible four hour flights known to man, I've been waiting here for three hours and not one single person will tell me what's going on with my husband. Now I want to speak to the Doctor and I want to speak to him now."

"Ma'am. In case you didn't notice." The nurse glared at her. "There was an explosion this morning. We're packed, all the other hospitals are packed and people are still coming in. We are working on your husband, we've been working on your husband and as soon as the Doctor has time he will come and give you an update."

"Chloe!" Lionel's voice carried down the hall as he hurried over to his daughter in law. "What's going on? How's Lex."

"I don't know." Chloe screamed. "I've been here for three hours and nurse Ratchet over there won't even tell me if he's still in surgery."

Lionel pulled her away from the nurses desk. "Calm down." He said to her and she took a deep breath. "Tell me what you know."

"I know he was at the plant, and he got buried under something and they found him and pulled him out and he's been here for seven hours but I don't know anything else, they won't tell me." Chloe deflated.

"Nonsense, you're a Luther." Lionel smiled at her and walked up to the nurses' station. A few minutes later Lionel came back with a smile on his face. "You just have to know what to say." He sat down. "He's still in surgery." Lionel told her. "There was a lot of damage to his abdomen, he punctured a lung and there was some other internal bleeding issues. They've fixed all that but right now he's got a lot of fluid in his skull and it's putting massive amounts of pressure on his brain."

"Oh God." Chloe gasped. "So does that mean he could…"

"No, my son is a fighter." Lionel grabbed her hands in his. "He's made it through worse than this." Chloe collapsed against this shoulder, the adrenaline, the fear she'd been running on for the past few hours was gone and she was exhausted. She cried for a good five minutes before collecting herself and pulling away.

"I can heal him." Chloe said suddenly, quietly.

"No." Lionel shook his head. "His accident was so public, the doctors, the nurses, they all know what kind of shape he's in and if you…it would just raise too many questions."

"I don't care." Chloe screamed and a few people turned around looked at her.

"Yes you do." Lionel said. "Let the Doctors do their magic, and if they fail…"

"I'll do mine." Chloe nodded.

"Have you eaten today?" Lionel asked.

"Not since this morning." Chloe confessed and her stomach rumbled as if on cue.

"I'll go try and find you something to eat." Lionel stood up and Chloe nodded staring down the hall when something caught her eye that made her blood run cold.

* * *

Clark was working in the barn when he heard the car pull up. He thought it was Lana so he didn't pay much attention to it until he heard a voice that was definitely not Lana's. "You could have saved him." Chloe said her voice as cold as ice.

"Could have saved who?" Clark asked brushing his hands off.

"Lex." Chloe said. "You were there, I saw you." She stepped forward a little. "Heard a lot of people talking about how one minute they were in the building, trapped and confused and the next thing they knew, they were at the hospital. You were there, and you could have saved him and you didn't." Lex had been stabilized in Denver and Chloe had him moved to Metropolis General as soon as she could. She was on her way there now, he hadn't woken up yet but the Doctors were more than optimistic.

"He's not dead." Clark tossed another bale of hay and turned to look at her, standing in the doorway to the barn, the same place she'd stood a million times before, only now it was different. She looked different. She was in a business suit, her hair artfully done, behind her a car worth more than the whole farm.

She took the four steps to him faster than he thought possible in the heals she was wearing and slapped him hard across the cheek, it hurt her more than it hurt him, he knew that but she didn't let it show. "Bastard." She said to him.

"You know I'm really confused Chloe." Clark looked at her. "I talked to Dinah, she told me what you said about Oliver, about how you missed him, how you loved him. And then she told me what you said about your marriage to Lex, how maybe it was your punishment for what happened and I thought to myself, that doesn't sound like a woman madly in love." Clark looked at her. "Does it? So I thought maybe we were right all along, maybe this marriage isn't all it appears to be, maybe you'd be thanking me."

"Thanking you?" Chloe scoffed.

"For giving you a way out." Clark offered.

"By killing him?" She squeaked.

"By not saving him."

"How does that make you any different from Lex Clark? Is that how you justified what you did? That you weren't killing him, you just weren't saving him?" She glared, her teeth grinding from all the effort it was taking her not to scream and throw things.

"Tell me something Chloe, because I saw you at the hospital, I saw you crying on Lionel's shoulder, yelling at Nurses, how do you go from the woman who believed her marriage was a punishment to that woman in the hospital who cared so much about whether he lived or died?" Clark glared.

"Because." She laughed, tears falling down her face. "In case you haven't noticed, he's the only thing I have left." She said almost defeated and turned to walk out of the barn.

* * *

"Don't worry Mr. Luther, she'll be here soon." Sylvia was checking his chart.

"Who?" Lex asked confused. He'd waken up only thirty minutes ago, they said he'd been asleep for days.

"Your wife." She smiled. "She normally gets here a little before eight for visiting hours, but the doctors are making an exception since you woke up."

"She's normally here at eight?" Lex asked confused.

"She stays for a few hours and leaves, but she's always back by four, here until we kick her out."

Lex sat there confused. Chloe was visiting him in the hospital, every day?

Even though the nurses told him how often she'd been to visit him since it happened, seeing her in the doorway was a shock. It was even more shocking when she turned to the Doctor and they started talking seriously and in depth about his condition. "And the MRI you did yesterday?" He heard Chloe ask but he didn't bother to listen to the answer, not like she did. It was amazing to him how intently she hung on the Doctor's every word, made him repeat or explain things she didn't catch the first time and then make him promise to write everything down for her. When the Doctor left she finally turned to Lex and smiled. "Hey."

"Hi." Lex said a little self conscious. She leaned over the bed and kissed him softly before sitting down and grabbing his hand. He tried to pull away but she kept a firm grip.

"The nurses are watching." Chloe said through a smiled.

Lex looked out the window and sure enough the nurses were watching. "I need to get out of here." He said to her. "I've been out of commission for three days; there was an explosion at the plant, there are so many things…" He reached for the covers and threw them back and Chloe chuckled.

"Hold on their Spark Plug." She laid a hand on his chest keeping him in the bed. "You're gonna be in here for a while yet."

"And what does gonna happen to my company by that time."

"You're such a worrier." Chloe smiled and pulled out the briefcase he hadn't seen her walk in with. "You didn't miss much." She pulled out file after file until there was a pretty good pile on his bed. "I took the meeting with Jennings's Pharmaceuticals on Monday because I know you've been trying to get that on the books for a couple months now and I was afraid if no one showed the whole deal would fall through."

"You took the meeting?" Lex raised an eyebrow at her.

"They agreed to all of your terms, signed and notarized." She passed the folder with the contract in it. "They tried to slip in a Grandfather Clause but we caught it so no worries. I've been taking care of the day to day stuff. There's a brief status report in there if you want something to look at later, but the real problem is the budget meeting with Senator Kelly later this week. There's no way you'll be out of the hospital to meet with him so I need you to brief me on the particulars. I brought some of the stuff with me and I'll bring the rest tomorrow. As for the explosion they've just been cleared to get into the sight to investigate the cause but all employees have been accounted for, no fatalities but quite a bit of injuries. I've already set up a program for the families of the workers injured." She looked up and saw Lex staring at her confused. "What?"

"Nothing, it's just…you did all this?" He asked confused. "Why?"

"Well people keep telling me that I'm a Luther now, figured it was time I started acting like one." Chloe said. "Oh hey Gladys." Chloe smiled at the nurse that walked in to change the IV. "Forgot to tell you, this is Gladys, she is being paid very good money to make sure that you don't get out of bed unless the Doctors say it's ok and you don't work for more than two hours a day."

"Is that so?" Lex smiled slightly.

"Yes it is." Chloe gathered up her things. "Gladys is my eyes and ears when I'm not here and technically you may have more money than me but don't try to bribe her, she's fiercely loyal and you'll just end up getting yourself in trouble. I have to go, I have four meetings this morning but I'll be back before dinner ok." She leaned over and kissed him again and this time Lex grabbed her neck and kept her there, holding on tighter and deepening the kiss.

"I love you." He said when he pulled away glancing at her then at Gladys.

"I love you too." Chloe kissed his cheek and walked to the door, her face flushed her breathing irregular and she knew that Lex knew.

* * *

Two weeks later he was well enough to come home, much to his own delight until he walked out of the elevator to see Gladys standing there smiling at him as Chloe led him into the downstairs bedroom that she'd made up for his recovery. "I thought Gladys worked for the hospital." Lex said as Chloe helped him into the bed.

"No." She laid him down. "Gladys works for me." She smiled and walked in the bathroom to get a glass of water. "Emphasis on me, not you."

"I get it." Lex said resisting the urge to roll his eyes when she set the water down on the side table, walked over to the door and closed it. "Planning a special welcome home? Doc says I'm not cleared for strenuous exercise." He teased her as Chloe came back, sat on the edge of the bed and then punched him in the arm, hard. "What was that for?"

"Don't you ever, ever, do something stupid like that again." Chloe glared at him. "I can't believe you. I have been worried sick, scared to death that you were going to die."

"I didn't realize you cared that much." Lex scoffed at her.

"You don't get it Lex." Chloe looked over at him, tears in her eyes. "You don't get it because nothing changed for you. Nothing, you're life is no different than it was a year ago except now you have a wife, you have your same friends and your same job, your same house, and your same one night stands. I don't. I don't have any of that, I have no friends left, no family, no house, no job, if you had died…" Her voice caught in her throat. "What would have happened to me? Did you even think about that?"

"Chloe…" Lex sighed.

"You're all I have left." She said quietly. "Whether I like it or not, whether I want it or not, you're it."

"I didn't mean to…" He sighed. "To be honest I didn't think you'd care. I thought you'd do a dance of joy, you'd be out of the marriage, out of the house, out of Lionel's life."

She scoffed. "Come on, do you honestly think that your death would get me out from under Lionel's thumb?" She wiped her eyes. "Trust me, for the rest of my life, I'll be doing what he wants me to do. I just think it would be easier to do all that from the lap of luxury to which I've grown accustomed."

Lex smiled at her.

* * *

Coming up Next Chloe and Oliver talk


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: The reviews have been great, I really appreciate all of them so keep it up. A lot of people have been...not exactly complaining but commenting that the reaction from Chloe's friends isn't exactly in character, that it seems a little harsh, just keep reading, everything will be explained, well not in this chapter but...trust me. Also I'm having a little bit of trouble with the next chapter and I know I generally post two at a time but I wanted to go a head and get this one up to give you a little something. Get ready for some serious Chlollie!

Present Day

"Hey Matt." Chloe nodded at the security guard as she made her way into the wing housing the Hooper exhibit.

"Hey Ms. Luther." He nodded at her. "Looks like you won't have the room all to yourself today."

"Really?" She peaked her head in and saw Oliver standing there examining a painting before moving to the next one. She shrugged and walked in the room. "Mr. Queen, I didn't realize you were a fan."

"I was told I really needed to stop by and see this." He said turning to her and smiling. "And today's the last day before it get's shipped off so…"

"What do you think?" Chloe asked. "Do you like it?"

"I'm not sure." He admitted. "It's interesting." He finally said after thinking for a minute.

"Interesting." Chloe rolled up the sleeves of her shirt and nodded. "Not exactly a ringing endorsement."

"You like it?" Oliver asked her.

"He's one of my favorite artists." She smiled examining the paintings.

"Ms. Luther's been here every day since the exhibit opened." Matt supplied.

"Every day?" Oliver asked her. "Maybe you can explain something to me then."

"I can try." Chloe nodded.

"Why does everything look so empty?" He pointed to the paintings. "Empty rooms, empty streets."

"Not empty." Chloe shook her head. "Open."

"Open?" Oliver looked back at a painting.

"Open for interpretation, full of possibilities. That's what I love so much about him. He doesn't tell you what the painting is supposed to be about, he lets you decide for yourself." She pointed to one on the wall. "Take this one here, it's actually my favorite and my personal meaning of it changes with my mood."

"How so?" Oliver asked.

"It's a woman at a café right? Having a cup of coffee?" Oliver nodded. "Well if I'm in a good mood I imagine that she's exhausted. She's ending one of the greatest nights of her life, some grand adventure, some wonderful rendezvous. Maybe she's there's trying to unwind at the end of it all. Maybe it's not over and she waiting for someone to meet her, a secret lover, a best friend."

Oliver quirked a smile at the passion she expressed when talking about the painting. "And if you're in a bad mood?"

"If I'm sad, I think she's sad too. I think she's there in that dinner in the middle of the night because she has nowhere else to go. She's at the end of her rope. She's all dolled up, fancy clothes, hat, and makeup; maybe it's an anniversary that she'd rather forget. Her eyes are unfocused, she's thinking about nothing because there's something she doesn't want to think about." Oliver looked away from the painting and over to Chloe now, watching her face as she described this scene to him, like she'd been there. Like she'd been the lost woman in the coffee shop before. "Maybe, you see she's only wearing one glove." Chloe pointed to the painting. "Maybe she's leaving, running away, she left in a hurry and didn't have time to grab the other one. Or maybe she did leave, maybe she's coming back because she realized she had no other place to go. She's clutching that coffee cup like a life line, but she's not drinking it, it's gone cold already." Chloe stared at the picture for a while and then turned to Oliver and smiled. "Or who knows maybe she's just a woman sitting in a coffee shop, enjoying a drink."

"Maybe." Oliver nodded. "You're right though." He looked around. "They don't seem empty anymore."

"It's too bad you weren't here last week." Chloe sighed. "Not all of his stuff is out here. There's a bunch in the back. They didn't have the room so they had to rotate the exhibit."

"That is too bad." Oliver agreed. "I would have liked to have seen the others."

Chloe paused then turned to him. "You know, I still have my key, from when I was helping out with the fundraiser. I could sneak us back there, let you take a look."

"I don't want you to go to any trouble." Oliver protested.

"It's no trouble." Chloe turned around. "As long as Matt doesn't rat us out. Mrs. Penny would kill me if she knew I hadn't returned my key yet."

"I don't know nothing about nothing." Matt smiled at her and turned his head.

"Come on." Chloe grabbed Oliver's arm.

"You won't get in trouble?" He asked.

"No, besides, I kind of want to see them one last time before they're gone you know." She pulled him to a door and used her key to open it and then they were in the back, in the storage and administrative area. "This way." Chloe pulled him down a hall then turned and pulled him down another.

Oliver looked around to make sure they were alone. "We aren't actually going to look at paintings are we?"

"No." She smiled. "I just needed to get us away from prying eyes and ears." She looked around then opened and door and pulled him in the room, closing and locking the door behind her. She turned around and realized that she hadn't thought past this point, past meeting Oliver and getting him alone, she didn't have a plan.

Oliver looked around the room, it was full of old pieces of furniture, dust covered canvases, broken pieces of wood, paint stained drop clothes. Probably no one came in this room very often so they'd be free to talk. He turned around to face Chloe and stopped, wondering what happened now. He stormed back into her life the day before, yelled at her and then kissed her before storming back out. He'd been full of emotions, confusion, longing, anger yesterday but today he was just nervous, about what she would tell him, about what she wouldn't. He didn't know where to start.

"I…" they both said at the same time and then laughed, easing the tension a bit.

"Ladies first." Oliver offered her.

Chloe nodded, she hadn't known what she was going to say before so she wasn't sure what to say now but she was positive that the words that came out of her mouth were not what she had planned. "I missed you." The desperation punctuated the truth of the words and Oliver's shoulders relaxed. "Oh God I missed you." She was in front of him before he could even blink and her arms wrapped around his waist, pulling him tight.

"Sidekick, you have no idea." He smiled into the top of her head and pulled her even closer. The two of them stood like that, clutching to one another like a life line, neither wanting to let go, to lose the comfort or warmth. Soon enough Oliver realized that Chloe was crying. "Hey." He pulled back and grabbed her face, brushing the hair out of the way and forcing her to look at him. "What's that about?"

"I'm so sorry." She sobbed. "You were dead for eight years, as far as I knew you were dead for eight years and it was all my fault and now you're here and it makes me think that everything's going to be ok just because you're back. I think just because you're here now you can fix everything but you can't. It's all gotten so complicated and messy and I didn't want to fix it before, before it got messy, when there was still a chance because there was no reason, you were dead and it didn't matter but now you're here and it matters and now it's too late."

"Hey." He kissed her forehead softly and pulled her back into the hug as she continued to cry. "Everything is going to be ok. I don't care how complicated or messy things are, I'll do whatever I have to do to fix it for you, if that's what you want." He rubbed her back soothingly. "And it wasn't your fault. Don't ever think what happened was your fault."

She pulled away and looked up at him in confusion. "Of course it was my fault." She said sniffing pitifully. "Everyone was right, it was my fault and…"

"What do you mean everyone was right?" Oliver moved back a few steps so he could look her in the eye. "Who said it was your fault?"

"They all thought I killed you." Chloe grabbed a tissue from her bag and whipped her nose. "They thought it was me, and even though I didn't shoot you, I pushed you in the water, I was the one who messed up in the first place."

"They thought you killed me?" Oliver said so confused. "Who?" His voice was angry now and Chloe closed her mouth.

"It doesn't matter." She shook her head. "Because you aren't dead, you're here."

"It does matter and you know it Chloe." Oliver stroked her cheek, whipping away a tear. "Who?"

"Bart." Chloe admitted. "And Dinah. Victor and AC never came out and said it but they thought I." She could see Oliver's jaw tensing. "And Clark."

"They all thought you killed me?" He was trying to hard not to scream.

"In all fairness to them. You just disappeared and three months later, I married your sworn enemy." Chloe pointed out.

"Right." Oliver took a deep breath. "We're going to talk about them later, definitely. But maybe now you could explain exactly how that happened?"

"How I became Ms. Luther?" Chloe looked around and then sat on an old broken bench. Oliver sat down next to her. "It was pretty simple really…" So she told him, about Lionel, about the deal, about the contract and the wedding. "I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't see another way out. I was upset about you and Clark was gone and I thought it was the only way, to keep you safe, to keep all of you safe." She sighed. "I don't really like to think about it too hard, it never pays to dwell on the past but I'm sure if I had thought hard enough I could have come up with something better, something different, but I just…"

"I understand." Oliver assured her. "It's not the best way things could have turned out. Not how I had them planned, then again I didn't plan on spending eight years in a coma." Chloe laughed a little. "But your right, now I'm here and I can fix this. I'll find someone way to fix this." He grabbed her chin and tilted it up to face him. "I promise you." He kissed her lips lightly, just to reassure her that he was there. He leaned in to kiss her again and she pulled away with a small sob.

"You can't." She ran her fingers through her hair. "I told you already you can't fix it now. Maybe five years ago you could have fixed it, maybe but then…" She turned away from him and took a deep breath. "Then it got messy."

"And complicated?" Oliver offered.

"Yes." Chloe turned around, desperate for him to understand. "And complicated."

"What's so complicated?" Oliver laughed grabbing her face again and moving to kiss her but she ducked and he ended up kissing her forehead.

"Everything." Chloe sighed.

"Nothing's too complicated you can't fix it." He whispered to her. "But you have to tell me what's going on or I can't do anything about it."

"Not yet." She didn't say anything else as he wrapped his arms around her and held her closer. She couldn't say anything yet, she wanted to prolong this moment right here. She wanted to stay in Oliver's arms for as long as she could because once she told the rest, she might never be in his arms again. "I can't do that yet. I can't talk about it." She lifted her head up suddenly and kissed him hard and fast. He might hate her for this, especially after he heard the rest of the story but she was being selfish for once, she wanted this, she needed this, she needed him, right now, before the truth came out, before he looked at her differently.

Everything was forgotten for a few minutes as Chloe and Oliver dove into each other, tasting each other, feeling each other. Oliver backed Chloe into the wall and she moaned with delight as he flattened himself against her. His hand rose slowly under her shirt and her hands skimmed the waist of his pants. It wasn't until her fingers landed on his belt buckle that Oliver stopped.

"Chloe." Oliver pulled away, with quite a bit of difficulty. He held her by the shoulders, out at arm's length and caught his breath. "I'm not doing this here." He looked around the room and then back at her fallen smiled. "No, I want to, God you have no idea how much I want to, but not here, not like this."

"Where?" She stepped closer and laid her hand on his chest, feeling his heart beating rapidly beneath his skin.

"I don't know." He rested his chin on the top of her head. "I can't think straight when you're this close to me." He admitted.

"The Clock Tower." Chloe said.

Oliver shook his head. "I don't own that anymore."

"I know." Chloe smiled up at him. "I do." He looked down at her confused. "I bought it because, well because it reminded me of you, it made me feel closer to you." She played with the buttons on his shirt self consciously.

"And Lex was ok with that?" Oliver asked confused.

"He doesn't know that I even knew you remember." Chloe pointed out. "I needed an office to run the charities from and I said I thought it was really cool working inside of a giant clock."

"Ok." He kissed her softly. "The Clock Tower."

"Three hours." She told him. "You know how to get up the back way still?"

"I think I remember." He nodded. "Three hours." She smiled and kissed him again. "If we ever want to get there, we have to leave here."

"Right." Chloe said smiling and stepping back.

* * *

Chloe poked her head out of the door and saw Matt smiling at her. "Coast is clear." She laughed and opened it wider allowing both herself and Oliver to walk out and then she locked it again. "You good now?" He asked her.

"No." Chloe shook her head. "You sure I can't just take them all home?"

Matt laughed at her. "I'd really have to arrest you for that." He pointed out.

"You're the best Matt." Chloe kissed his cheek. "I'm gonna go give this to Mrs. Penny or I might be tempted to sneak in after hours to look at them again." She turned to Oliver. "Mr. Queen, it was good to see you again."

"And you Ms. Luther." The words tasted foul in his mouth and it took everything he had not to gag.

"Can I walk you out?" She asked on her way to the door.

"No I think I'm going to stay here for a while longer." He checked his watch. "See if I can see what you see."

"They aren't empty." Chloe smiled at him. "They're open." She walked out of the wing and heard Matt talking to Oliver.

"I think they look pretty empty too." He said. "Then again what do I know."

* * *

Oliver left shortly after Chloe, he had something he needed to do before he met her at the Clock Tower. He'd called them all yesterday, requested they meet him in Metropolis today. Initially he just wanted to see them, to make sure they were all ok, make sure they were still on the mission, now he had something much bigger to discuss with them. A lot of time had passed and he'd worried that they wouldn't respond to him, but technically he was still their boss. The fund he'd set up to pay for all the JLA stuff was supposed to continue to pay even after his death, so they'd been living on his dime for the past eight years.

He walked the short distance from the museum to the warehouse district and ran down a few alleys to the agreed upon location. He slipped in the empty building and closed the door silently behind him. "Wasn't sure you were gonna show." A voice said from the shadows and Victor stepped out into the light where Oliver could see him. "Wasn't sure it was really you."

"It is." Oliver said shrugging.

"So it's true then." Bart called from the other end of the warehouse. "My eyes do not deceive me." He moved from the back of the warehouse to right in front of Oliver in the blink of an eye. "Boss man's alive and well."

Bart held out his hand and as much as he didn't want to, Oliver shook it. "Doesn't look like that coma did too much damage." Dinah said from above them before jumping down to the ground and giving Oliver the once over.

"Are you kidding." AC called from behind him. "Dude slept for eight years, probably can't even lift his cell phone." Oliver smiled and held out his hand. When AC grabbed it, he pulled him close and then flipped him over his shoulder and slammed him onto the ground.

"You were saying?" Oliver raised an eyebrow and AC smiled as he pulled himself up.

"Nothing Boss." He dusted off his pants and looked out on his team. A team that eight years he would have trusted to have his back at all times, a team he would have trusted to have Chloe's back at all times. The fact that they turned on her so quickly and with so little evidence burned him up inside, where was the loyalty?

"Not much has changed in the past eight years; you still got the drop of Fish Man." Victor smiled.

"Apparently quite a lot has changed." Oliver said and no one looked at him.

"What are you talking about?" AC asked.

"Chloe." Oliver said.

"We were just as shocked as you." Bart said. "I mean I can't believe she was playing us like that, the whole time."

"Playing us?" Oliver turned to Bart.

"You know being all sneaky double agent like. Working for Lex." Bart pointed out.

"Is that what you think happened?" Oliver asked them, all of them.

"Come on man." Victor said. "After what happened on the boat and then she marries the guy, what else could it have been."

"What happened on the boat Victor?" Oliver glared at him. "You have no idea what happened on that boat, you weren't even there."

"AC was." Dinah pointed out.

"Right, AC was, as I remember, trapped inside the boat at the time. What exactly did you see happen? Did you see Chloe kill me?"

"No." AC shook his head. "You were both gone by the time I got out."

"Right, so based on the fact that the both of us disappeared that night, you decided that Chloe killed me." Oliver asked them, his arms crossed over his chest.

"No." Bart shook his head. "We busted our asses for three months looking for the both of you and then one day we turned on the news and right there was a picture of Chloe and Lex, newlyweds."

"What were we supposed to think?" Dinah asked.

"Anything." Oliver laughed. "Anything else in the entire universe should have made more sense to you than your crazy theory that Chloe was working for Lex and then killed me and then married him. How does that make any sense to you? In our world, in our life, there was never a moment when you thought something didn't add up? With all we've seen with all the things we know are possible, meteor rocks, possession and the only logical conclusion you guys managed to come to was that Chloe was to blame for everything. Did you even talk to her?"

"Yeah." Bart nodded. "I did."

"And what did she say?"

"That she loved him." Bart pointed out. "That she'd been seeing him secretly for years."

"And you believed her?" Oliver asked.

"She didn't really give us a reason not to." AC pointed out. "She wouldn't tell us what happened that night."

"I just want to know how long it took you guys to completely turn your backs on a woman who would have laid down her life for you, who, as I recall, did lay down her life for a few of you." Oliver pointed out. Everyone hung their heads, and they were all remembering the times Chloe had healed them, basically died for them.

"With all due respect, Boss." Victor spit out angrily. "She turned her back on us first."

"No, she didn't." Oliver glared at them. "She never turned her back on you. Even when you were accusing her of murder, accusing her of betrayal, she was doing everything she could to protect you."

"What are you talking about?" Bart asked, his voice a whisper.

"I'm talking about the deal she made with the devil to keep your sorry asses safe. I'm talking about signing her life away to Lex Luther because Lionel was threatening to out all of you, share your secret with the world and with Lex. I'm talking about the fact that she's been living a lie for eight years to not only shut down 33.1 but make sure that you guys were never guests there. That's what I'm talking about." Oliver glared at each of them.

"Why didn't she tell us?" Bart asked after a long silence

"She couldn't tell you." Oliver threw his hands in the air exasperated. "It was part of the deal that everyone really believe that she was marrying Lex for Love. She had hoped that you guys knew her well enough at that point, knew who she really was that you would see something was up, that you would know she was laying. But no, instead you betrayed her, you left her alone at the one time in her life that she needed friends the most, that she needed you guys." He ran his fingers through his hair. "This isn't why I called you guys here, but I really can't be here any longer, I really need to walk away and cool off before I do or say something I'm going to regret." He shook his head, turned around and walked away.

The four of them stood there long after Oliver was gone, neither one looking at the others, all of them staring at the floor. "We couldn't have known." Victor said.

"We could have." Bart shook his head. "We didn't want to know. We didn't want to see it."

"She tried to tell me." Dinah looked up at them. "I was just so angry."

"We were all angry." AC pointed out.

"She wasn't." Bart smiled. "The last time I saw her, she wasn't angry." Dinah and Victor hung their heads remembering the last time they saw Chloe. "She saw me and she smiled, she was happy to see me, like she missed me and I…" He trailed off, they all remembered what happened.

"Can we fix this?" AC asked.

"No." Victor shook his head. "Not now. Five years ago we could have fixed this, but not now. It's too messy and complicated." He turned around and walked away. One by one they all followed suit until Bart was left alone, standing in the warehouse. Things may have gotten messy, things may have gotten overly complicated, but it wasn't about being forgiven by Chloe. It wasn't about trying to make himself feel better, it was about Chloe now, and it would be about Chloe until she knew how sorry he was, until she knew he would take back everything he'd said or done the past eight years if he could. He took a deep breath and walked out of the warehouse.

* * *

Chloe stood in the massive open area of the Clock tower, her stomach jumbled up in knots, her hands tapping out a nervous beat against her thigh as she stared around the room. She had no idea what she was doing here. When she was at the museum, in that room with Oliver this seemed like such a good idea, it seemed like the only good idea she'd had in her life. But now, here without him, it seemed so bad. Affair, the word hit her in the stomach like a brick and she swallowed to keep from puking. That's what she was doing now, having an affair. She was meeting a man who was not her husband, in secret, to have sex. She was an adulterer. "I can't do this." Chloe said grabbing her keys off the bar and heading for the elevator. She wasn't a cheater, she wasn't this person.

She stopped at the elevator and sighed. Her marriage wasn't exactly the stuff dreams were made up. It wasn't like Lex hadn't done this to her ten times over. It wasn't like this was a random guy she'd picked up at a bar, half drunk just for the sex. This was Oliver, her Oliver. She turned away from the elevators and sighed, she could do this, she needed to do this, she need him. She set her keys down on the counter and smiled.

Then she panicked again. This was Oliver. He'd been gone, dead, for eight years. Before that he was basically her boss. Sure he was her friend, one of her best friends if she was honest with herself but he wasn't her boyfriend. It wasn't like they dated before. They never went out together; they never had these feelings before. The first time she'd ever kissed him was on that boat, before she dropped him in the ocean. So what was going on now? Why did she have this need so deep down inside of her for him? Why did she have this burning desire that was driving her to the point where she was willing to cheat on her husband? She blamed herself for what happened to him, she spent years thinking about him and what she'd done, had she built him up in her mind, had she manufactured these feelings through guilt?

He'd kissed her in the penthouse; he'd kissed her in museum. Why? Why was he doing this now when ten years ago he didn't want to kiss her, when ten years ago he was nothing more than a friend? Was it because of Lex? Was it some twisted way to get back at him? Was he just using Chloe? She grabbed her keys again and turned to the elevator once more.

This was Oliver. She reminded herself, frustrated and confused. He would never do something like that, not to her. If she was honest with herself she did have those feelings ten years ago. But he was her boss, he was her friend, and as far as she knew he was in love with Lois for the bulk of their association. She remembered her confrontation with Dinah, Dinah who said that Oliver loved her way back when. She said that Oliver treated her differently like she was special. Did he feel this back then? If the coma never would have happened, if the marriage, would the two of them be together now? She hoped so, she needed to believe that because she couldn't do this otherwise, she couldn't do this unless she knew these feelings were real and not, "hey you're back from the dead and I really missed you.".

She leaned up against the wall and slid down slowly, resting her forehead against her knees. "This is ridiculous Chloe."

"I agree." Oliver said from the balcony. She looked up at him and her heart skipped a beat. "So are you staying or are you going?"

"I don't know." She admitted to him.

"Way to stroke a guys ego." He joked with her, walking over and grabbing her hands to pull her up. "What's wrong?" He looked down at her. "Three hours ago you were ripping my clothes off in a storage unit." She glared at him and he smiled. "Having second thoughts?"

"No." She shook her head. "Yes." She sighed and walked away from him. "Not really second thoughts, just new ones."

"Ok." He walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her stomach. "Tell me the new thoughts and maybe that will help."

She turned around to look him, his arms still around her waist, holding her in place. "What are we doing?" He raised an eyebrow at her and she laughed. "I mean I know what we're doing but why?"

"I don't understand the question." Oliver smiled and kissed her. Chloe pulled away and sighed.

"This, us, when exactly, between working together eight years ago and waking up from a coma did we get to the point where we couldn't keep our tongues to ourselves. We weren't like this before Oliver, we didn't do this before. I mean it's not like we were crazy in love before the accident and we're just picking up where we left off. We were just friends, but now." She closed her eyes. "I'm about to cheat on my husband. I spent eight years being completely faithful to a man I didn't even want to be married to but then you come along and I'm seventeen and I want to sneak off to any available corner or closet just to touch you."

"Ok." Oliver said, still a little confused.

"Why did you kiss me?" She asked him. "When you came to the penthouse that first night, why did you kiss me?"

He pulled away from her and sat down on the edge of the desk. "For someone so smart you're pretty dumb you know." He smiled at her. "We were never just friends." He reached out for her hand and she let him have it. He pulled her over and settled her in between his legs, his hands resting lightly on her hips. "Back before the accident, we weren't just friends. We were young, and we were stupid and we thought we had all the time in the world so we took our time, we took a lot of time, we took too much time really and we never did anything, we just made googily eyes at each other made up excuses to touch each other, to be alone together. We were never just friends Chloe. I was hopelessly in love with you and I didn't do anything and I didn't say anything and then it was too late." She smiled at him. "Then I came back and I'd been gone for eight years and you were married to another man and I realized what happened when you didn't go after what you wanted so I went after you."

"You were hopelessly in love with me?" Chloe smiled and ran her fingers through his hair.

"I was like a seventh grader with the sweaty palms and a nervous stutter." Oliver smiled at her. "I thought you felt the same way, but after Lois I was just too scared to say anything. I always thought I'd have time." Chloe kissed him softly. "Was I the only one who felt like that?"

"God no." Chloe shook her head at him. "I didn't have the sweaty palms or the nervous stutter, that wasn't my thing. I had hyper awareness."

"Hyper awareness?" Oliver smiled.

"Oh yeah, hyper awareness and what I call translator syndrome." She nodded. "Whenever you were around I was hyper aware of everything." She explained. "I always knew exactly where you were in the room, I always knew exactly what I was doing with my hands or how I was standing or talking. I was convinced that every move you made had some sort of hidden meaning, some secret message and I was constantly trying to decipher it. Like if you brushed my arm as you reached across me for something I spent hours later, after you were gone trying to figure out what it meant. Did you brush my arm on purpose, if you brushed my arm on purpose why that arm, why did you brush it with the palm of your hand and not the side of your hand, if you didn't do it on purpose did that mean something…I would keep myself awake trying to figure out what you're sneezes really meant."

"Generally that Bart was wearing too much cologne." Oliver thought about it. "Although there was that one time, I bet you remember it. I had two short sneezes and one long one. That was a secret message."

"Oh yeah?" Chloe raised her eyebrows. "What did that mean?"

"Well obviously I was trying to let you know that I was madly in love with you and couldn't spend one more day without you." He shrugged. "But then you handed me a tissue and broke my heart."

Chloe slapped his arm playfully. "So we're going to do this?" She asked the conversation back to serious.

"I want to do this." Oliver said. "I spent eight years without you and I'm not sure I could hold out another second."

Chloe smiled and kissed him then, all her worries and all her problems seemed to leek away from her body the moment her lips touched his and nothing in the world mattered to her more than the feel of his skin on hers, the way his fingers lightly stroked the small of her back as he raised his hands up to her neck. This was Oliver. This was right. She'd been waiting for this for more than eight years and she was tired of waiting for what she wanted. She was tired of sacrificing herself for others; she was going to be selfish, even if it was just for one night. She pulled away from him and grabbed his hand, smiling sweetly as she pulled him down the hall toward the bedroom. She couldn't help but remember the last time this had happened, and how different the circumstances were.

* * *

"_Chloe!" Oliver called out walking into the clock tower. "You still here?" _

"_In the gear room." She screamed back and Oliver smiled. _

"_Should have known." He set his bag on the ground and walked past the room where he held all his Green Arrow stuff and up a small spiral staircase. Chloe was lying on the catwalk staring down and he walked over and laid next to her. _

"_What are you doing here?" Chloe asked, not looking at him, keeping her eyes down, entranced by the large gears that ran the clock. Generally if she wasn't doing work for the Planet or Oliver, this was where she was. "I thought you'd stay in Tokyo with the others." _

"_I have a meeting in Metropolis in the morning." Oliver yawned. "What are you still doing here?" _

"_I live here now remember?" Chloe laughed. _

"_Right." Oliver nodded. He'd forgotten that Chloe had moved into the Clock tower, closer to the Daily Planet and better for the team, so she was available whenever they needed her. "I forgot." _

"_Obviously." Chloe looked up and turned to him. "You look like crap." _

"_I've been awake for three days." Oliver countered and turned his attention down to the gears watching them slowly turn. "What do you find so fascinating about this?"  
_

_She turned to face him, shifting her body so she was lying on her side. "I don't know. Clockwork is just ingenious and beautiful, don't you think?" _

"_Beautiful?" Oliver asked. _

"_Look at this." She pointed down. "I mean today we've got microchips and processors and computers that can think for themselves but have you ever opened a computer? It's all harsh metal and tangles of wires. This was the cutting edge of technology, it was genius for its time but it's got a kind of sculpture quality to it. Not only that, it just amazing that all of these parts work in congress with each other. That gear doesn't turn unless that one turns, and that one doesn't turn unless the other one turns, if one gear were to stop, the whole thing would stop, there's just something about that that seems appealing, that every piece has to work perfectly individually for the whole to function." _

_Oliver was staring at her smiling. "You're amazing you know that." _

"_You're delirious from sleep deprivation." She rolled her eyes._

"_No I mean that. I look down there and I see gears and springs. You look down there and you see art and philosophy." _

"_Maybe I'm a little delirious from sleep deprivation." Chloe shrugged. _

"_No." Oliver shook his head. "You're just a dreamer." He saw her face fall. "That's not a bad thing Chloe, don't misunderstand me." He smiled. "You see the whole world in a way that I could never see it and I envy that in you. You see Giants, I see windmills." _

"_Ok, I'm Don Quixote?" Chloe asked. "Wasn't he crazy?" _

"_Maybe I'm Don Quixote." Oliver said suddenly. "Tilting at windmills, battling Lex Luther." _

_Chloe wrinkled her nose. "Does that make me Sancho?" _

"_No." He turned to look at her. "You're Dulcinea." _

"_Right." She stood up and held out her arms. "Let's get you to bed before you really go crazy and challenge one of your business partners to an imaginary duel." _

"_Don Quixote dies sad and alone." Oliver pointed out. _

"_You're not going to die sad and alone." Chloe smiled, pulling him down the steps and to the room. _

"_Yeah, how do you know?" Oliver pouted. _

_  
"Well, for one thing, you aren't Don Quixote." She shoved him down on the bed and pulled off his shoes. "For another, he never found his Dulcinea and you, well you've got me." _

"_I do?" Oliver asked as she pulled the covers over him. _

"_Yeah. Get some sleep ok." _

"_Good night." Chloe smiled turning off the lights and shutting the door._

* * *

Oliver had her backed up to the edge of the bed, pulling Chloe's shirt over her head as she worked the buttons on his. "I'm a different person now Oliver." She felt the need to point out. "So much time has passed. What if I can't see Giants anymore, what if all I see are Windmills?"

"How many days a week do you sit on the catwalk and stare at the gears?" He asked her and she blushed. "You still see Giants." He assured her. "And if you can't it doesn't matter. Windmills or Giant's I'd battle them all for you." He pulled her closer and then down until she was lying on the bed, with him on top of her.

This wasn't what she expected, not at all, considering what they were doing. She'd always imagined Lex's infidelities to be dirty and rushed, all rough hands and teeth, closed eyes and wandering thoughts, a feeling of hurried desperation. But this was none of those things. Oliver's hands glided over her body, gentle and slow like as if anything more than a feather light touch would damage her, break her. His eyes drank in every inch of her, methodically yet tenderly, as if he was trying to memorize every freckle, learn ever curve until he knew them by heart. His mouth explored her body in a way that was both too fast and too slow, building Chloe to a sort of peaceful frenzied state. And then when he finally entered her, it wasn't with the angst that showed in his eyes, it was slow and painful and beautiful and she bit her lip to keep from crying out.

"Don't." He whispered in her ear. "Don't hold back, not with me." He pleaded with her and she obliged letting out a moan so guttural and feral she didn't even know she was capable of making, and to her surprise it was echoed in Oliver's chest a second later. This surprised her. She didn't think it was possible that he could be feeling this as deeply as she was, but she wanted him to. She wanted him to know how he was driving her crazy, taking her breath away as he slowly controlled her movement, slow and even, gently gliding in and out.

She flipped them over so that she was on top, she was in charge. He seemed surprised at first, confused and then he smiled and gave over the control. His hands held onto her hips like a life line as she slowly, inch by inch, pausing ever so slightly with each movement, lifted herself up, almost completely off of him and then lowered herself down in one smooth motion. His head flew back and his eyes closed in pure ecstasy as his fingers tightened their hold on her hips. It was Chloe's turn explore, her turn to memorize his body, watch his expressions change as her fingers moved from chest to abs, feeling the shape of him, the tense muscles, the soft skin. She removed her hands, earning a soft whimper from Oliver only to turn it into a moan when she replaced them with her mouth. He tasted like sweat and leather and something that was quintessentially Oliver and Chloe couldn't get enough, it was like ambrosia.

Without even realizing it she'd hurried her pace, her hips moving faster and faster, of their own accord now, her body completely separate from her mind, annoyed at the snail's pace she was taking. Oliver, likewise had sped up to meet her, his fingers now digging into her hips, clutching to her like a life line and then suddenly she was on the bottom again, Oliver regaining control, capturing her mouth in a kiss that lasted far shorter than she would have liked, cut off by the necessity for air. Both of them were panting now, their breath coming fast and short as Oliver moved faster and faster and Chloe thrust up to meet him, completely in sync, completely together. She could feel it building up inside of her like a wave that had just been pulled back to sea, gathering moment, building and building until it was too big to be contained, water spilling over the top and the sides as it crashed onto the sand. Chloe came screaming, something she never thought she would do but the pleasure was to intense, and it just kept coming until it pushed all the thoughts out of her head and she was lying there delirious, her breath evening out as Oliver collapsed on top of her. She could feel his heart beating on her bare chest as he kissed her neck and shoulders. Her hands wrapped around his waist and up his back as she pulled him closer, crushed him against her until she couldn't breathe and still he wasn't close enough.

She whimpered when he pulled himself up on his elbows, his hands smoothed the hair out of her face as he kissed her forehead, and then her nose and then her lips, feather light kisses filled with promises of so much more. "Dulcinea." He whispered. "I see heaven when I see thee." His nose brushed hers lightly and he kissed her again before rolling to the side, pulling Chloe with him until he was lying on his back and she was sprawled half way over his chest. Her hand immediately sought out his skin and she hovered over his heart beat, feeling it slow and even out as he caught his breath.

She wanted to lay there forever. In that bed, in his arms, for the rest of her life. Her head on his chest, rising a falling with every breath he took as his fingers made lazy circles on her hips. The world didn't exist outside that bed, in that moment. It was just Oliver and Chloe, Green Arrow and Watchtower, Don Quixote and Dulcinea. The bubble was popped unceremoniously, the spell broken by the sound of two cell phones ringing from opposite ends of the room. Chloe lifted her head up and looked at Oliver and they both laughed before reluctantly moving to the side and retrieving the offending objects. "Yeah?" Chloe heard Oliver say tiredly, contently.

"Hello?" she answered her own phone in a state of semi confusion, her brain still not functioning at full capacity.

"What the hell Chloe I waited at the restaurant for like an hour and a half." Lois' harsh voice rang through the phone and Oliver even turned to Chloe, lifting an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry Lois." Chloe gathered up her clothes and started to pull them on. "I got carried away at the museum and then I realized I had some last minute stuff to do at the clock tower." She turned to Oliver and held her hand over the phone. "Bra?" She whispered the question and he pointed behind her to the lamp next to the bed and she smiled before grabbing it and pulling it on. "I'm so sorry I forgot about dinner."

"And a movie." Lois reminded her. "We were gonna go see the new James Bond, you know how I feel about British accents and spies."

"I know, I'm really sorry." Chloe cringed. "Look the Rialto is open late, why don't you meet me here and we'll skip dinner go straight to the movie portion of the evening."

"Fine." Lois groaned. "But you're buying."

"Sure." Chloe smiled.

"And I'm getting extra popcorn, maybe even some nachos."

"Whatever you want." Chloe said. "But I gotta go, finish up this paperwork so we can leave as soon as you get here."

"Ok." Lois hung up and Chloe followed suit, turning around to see Oliver adjusting the cuffs of his shirt.

"Lois?" He asked.

"I was supposed to meet her for diner, I just forgot." She shrugged.

"That was work." Oliver smiled sadly. "No rest for the recently risen from the dead. There's just so much to catch up on."

"I get it." Chloe assured him. "I've gotta meet Lois anyway so…"

Now was when it could get awkward, the post sex realization that what you did was just stupid or crazy. Oliver smiled and grabbed Chloe's waist pulling her against him and kissing her deeply and thoroughly. "When can I see you again?"

"Oliver…" she stared at the buttons on his shirt, unable to look at him.

"Don't over think this Chloe, don't back out, not now." He pleaded.

"No, never backing out, ever." She assured him. "But there are still some things we have to talk about ok, I need you to keep that in mind."

"Of course." He nodded. "I like that you don't think of me just as a piece of meat." She chuckled and kissed him. "Tomorrow?"

"No." She shook her head. "I've got meetings all day tomorrow and L…I'm supposed to be having dinner with a friend."

Oliver noticed the slip up, knew that she was going to say Lex and I but let it go, ignored it. "Monday?" He asked hopefully. "I'm not sure I could make it much longer than that without seeing you, talking to you."

"Ok." She nodded. "Monday. Same time, same place?"

"Got it." He kissed her again and walked out of the room and toward the elevator.

"Oliver." She called out to him. "Back way."

He froze with his finger above the call button and smiled. "Right." He walked over to the balcony smiled before grabbing onto the ledge above and pulling himself up. His feet had just disappeared from view when the elevator dinged and Chloe turned startled to see Lois standing there, not even bothering to get out, her finger holding down the door open button.

"Come on." She glared at Chloe. "James Bond waits for no man."

Chloe sighed and grabbed her jacket and purse from the desk. "James Bond waited for a lot of people." Chloe countered. "He was a spy, half of his job was to sit around and wait."

"Why must you ruin things for me?" Lois asked playfully as Chloe laughed. "Did you change your hair?"

"No." Chloe self-consciously ran her fingers through her hair making sure everything was in place. "Why?"

"You just look different." Lois observed. "Happy."

"I don't normally look happy?" Chloe asked her.

"Not this happy." She shrugged.

* * *


	6. Chapter 6

* * *

A/N: I know this is a little bit shorter than what you're used to but trust me, the next chapters really long.

* * *

Monday morning Oliver walked out of his bathroom, drying his hair with a towel when he stopped and turned around. "Hey." Bart said from the chair in the corner.

"Hey." Oliver dropped the towel onto the bed and stared at him for a minute before walking over to his closet. "How did you get in here?"

"I used to be a thief remember?" Bart smiled slightly. "I can get into anywhere."

"Right." Oliver nodded absentmindedly as he looked through his clothes.

"You were right." Bart said suddenly and Oliver turned to look at him. "About everything, about Chloe, about what happened, and about how we acted. You were right."

"I know." Oliver pulled a shirt on and started buttoning it.

"We were mad, and we were hurt and we lashed out at Chloe and that was wrong. We should have known better, known her better. We should have trusted her more."

"You should be telling her this, not me." Oliver pointed out.

"I know." Bart said. "But I'm not sure she wants to hear it and I know that a sorry isn't going to make anything better."

"It's a start." Oliver said. "All you have to do is make sure you don't stop with sorry. Prove to her that you're sorry, prove to her that you want to make up for it. That you want to do whatever it takes, to make it up to her. This is Chloe Bart, the most forgiving, caring woman I've ever met."

"You're right." Bart sighed. "I know, I just…I'm not sure she wants to see me."

"I'm meeting her tonight, why don't you give me a call and you can come while I'm there, maybe that will be better."

"You would do that?" Bart asked and Oliver nodded. "Thanks man."

"So." Oliver looked around. "Tell me what you guys have been up to, seeing as how she took care 33.1 for you."

"Hey!" Bart looked offended. "It's not like we've been sitting around with our thumbs up our butts for eight years. We can function without you."

"Recent evidence suggests that you really can't." Oliver joked with him.

"Right, good to know the coma didn't damage your ego any." Bart rolled his eyes. "Anyway, let me tell you about this guy in Russia he could like control lighting or something, thought he was a God."

"A God?" Oliver looked interested. "Really?"

"Oh yeah. Built up his own little cult. Had a commune, the works." Bart said. "Now at first we didn't pay attention to him, people want to be stupid and follow a wack job who thinks he's a God, not our problem." Oliver nodded. "Then he started to go a little crazy. He started talking about bringing about the end of the world, cleansing everything with fire to start a new order so naturally, we had to step in."

"Naturally." Oliver smiled.

* * *

Chloe sat at her desk Monday night staring across the room at Kate who was taking her sweet time gathering her things. She glanced over at the clock and sighed. It was eight fifteen. "Night Chloe." Kate smiled and walked to the elevator.

"Night Kate, see you tomorrow." Chloe smiled as she walked into the elevator and breathed a sigh of relief as the doors closed behind her.

"I thought she'd never leave." Oliver said from the shadows.

Chloe jumped up and turned around, her hand on her chest as she smiled. "You scared me. How long have you been here?"

"Since seven thirty." He smiled sheepishly. "I had no idea that charity work was such a late night activity."

"It's the school thing, in Africa." Chloe said lamely wondering why they were still talking and not kissing. Oliver must have read her mind because he took the three steps toward her in large strides and kissed her. "I missed you." He whispered against her mouth.

"Me too." She said, her hands weaving into his hair.

"Two days is far too long to go without seeing you." He mumbled and started to pull her shirt from her pants when the elevator dinged.

They pulled apart and Chloe looked at Oliver wide eyed before shoving him away, back into the shadows just as the doors opened and Kate walked back in. "Forgot my cell phone."

Chloe smiled and chuckled as she grabbed the phone from her desk and walked back to the elevator. "That was close." Oliver walked back out of the shadows and reached for Chloe but she stepped back.

"Wait." She held up her hand. "We need to talk remember?"

"Right." Oliver lowered his hands. "Talking, I can do that."

Chloe smiled and led him over to the couch in the lounge area and they sat down. "There are some things you need to know about my life while you were gone, about my marriage."

"Ok." Oliver turned to her. "Ok." He nodded.

"Being married to Lex, it wasn't always sunshine and roses, but it wasn't the nightmare I'm sure you've made it out to be in your head." She smiled slightly. "Sometimes it was good."

"Good?" Oliver asked confused.

"For a few years, it was really good." Chloe said, almost apologetically.

* * *

Five Years Ago

Chloe didn't realize until she'd talked to Lex just how much she'd lost in this marriage. She needed something that was hers, something that she could do, on her own, that would make her feel good, keep her busy. That's when she started working with charities. Having money sure had advantages. She could actually help people again, like she used to with Justice League, only this was different. She could throw a party, raise millions of dollars, and help thousands of people all in one night. She threw herself into her new project with the same tenacity and passion that she used to have working for the Daily Planet, working for Oliver.

The problem was that she couldn't just pick one charity, there were so many that needed the money, so many that needed her help that's when she decided set up the foundation, Better Tomorrows. Basically it was a one stop shop for charity fundraising. The organizations could come to her, tell her what they needed and she set things up. If you needed to raise money for a cause, Better Tomorrows would throw your party. If you wanted to build rec centers for inner city kids, Better Tomorrows would handle all the logistics from hiring contractors to organizing volunteers and purchasing building supplies. Nothing was too big or too small for Chloe to handle from recruiting volunteers for soup kitchens to the Metropolis annual Charity auction.

It took months of planning and sweat but finally she'd done it. Better Tomorrows was officially open for business and much to Chloe's surprise Lex, whom Chloe didn't even think knew what she was doing, threw her a kickoff party. She was surprised and touched and confused all at the same time.

"You didn't have to do that." Chloe told him as they sat on the balcony after her party.

"I wanted to." Lex shrugged and turned to her. "I'm proud of you. Of what you're doing here."

She turned to him startled by the sudden confession. "Thanks." She smiled slightly, a blush riding to her cheeks. Suddenly his hand was on her cheek and his lips were on hers, soft, hesitant almost. When he pulled away she looked at him confused. "No one's here Lex."

"I know." He told her.

"Then why did you kiss me?"

"Because you're my wife and I'm proud of you and you look very cute when your embarrassed."

"You can't do that." She turned away from him, a new blush creeping up her face.

"Why?" He asked grabbing her chin and turning her face toward him.

"Because it makes things…confusing." She explained.

"Confusing?" He looked at her quizzically.

"We play our parts in public Lex but we can't let that spill over into private." She shook her head. "It's too confusing."

"Did you like it?" Lex asked and when Chloe didn't answer he smiled. "I liked it, I think you did too and I don't see any reason why we can't enjoy ourselves in this marriage." Lex pointed out to her.

"Because you're Lex Luther." Chloe said. "And I'm…"

"Chloe Luther?" He reminded her.

"Chloe." She said. "I'm Chloe and I can't just…" She was cut off as he closed the distance between them with a kiss, so fierce, so urgent, and over as soon as it had begun. For something that lasted no more than a few seconds it spoke volumes, what Lex wanted, what he needed, what he hoped Chloe could give him. But it also spoke of Chloe's feelings, of how long it had been since someone touched her like that, how much she missed this sort of intimate human contact, how much she need it, wanted it. She stood up abruptly. "I have to go." She turned around and walked to the door but Lex was at her side in seconds.

"Wait." His hand on her arm halted her movements and against her better judgment she turned to face him. "I scared you I didn't…"

"No." She shook her head. "I scared me." She said quietly. "I wanted…but we can't Lex."

"Why?" He asked, his eyes pleading with hers.

"Because this isn't real."

"Says who?" He asked throwing his hands in the air.

"Says the contracts we had to sign drawn up by your father. Says whatever information he's holding over our heads to make this happen in the first place."

"My father, whatever his reasons, put us together in this marriage and I'm sure that his intention was never that I develop actually feelings for you but it's happened and I can't stop it and I can't make them go away and I don't want to. Do you have any idea how much you changed my life Chloe? Do you have any idea what type of man you make me want to be, just so I'll deserve you?"

"Lex don't." Chloe pleaded with him.

"This marriage may not have started out real, but that doesn't mean it can't be real. " He kissed her again, reaffirming his emotions, his need to her and she pulled away and shook her head.

"I can't let it be real." Chloe whispered before turning around and walking away.

Chloe didn't know where she was going but anywhere was better than the Penthouse. Things were too confusing up there, she couldn't think straight. There was something Lex said to her, something that she'd been wondering herself for a while, surprised that she hadn't really thought about it much before, but now, with Lex's confession the answer was very important to her. That's what found her standing outside of LutherCorp towers at two in the morning in a ball gown. She rode the elevator up with a sort of inner calm she didn't know she could possess, given who she was going to see.

It had been almost two years since she'd seen him last, since Lex was in the accident. She tried to limit contact with her father in law as much as possible and Lex never pushed the point, not being a big fan of his father either. "Chloe." Lionel greeted her at the elevator doors when they opened. "I saw you on the monitors when you came in, please have a seat, can I get you a drink?"

Chloe ignored the offer of a seat and a drink and stared him down. "Why?"

"Why what?" He asked pouring himself a brandy.

"Why did you do it? Why did you want me to marry Lex? Will the information you had you could have used it for anything but you used it to get a wife for your son?"

"I was wondering when this question would come up." Lionel leaned forward and smiled. "Frankly I'm surprised it took this long."

"Why?" Chloe asked.

"Clark." Chloe was taken aback, of all the reasons he could have given her, this was nowhere near what she was expecting.

"Clark?" Chloe sat down and looked at him. "What could me marrying Lex possibly have to do with Clark Kent?"

"Everything." Lionel smiled. "I learned more about Clark Kent than you would think. When he took away my link to Jor-El, my salvation, I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to take away the thing he cared about most in the world."

"But Lana…"

"Is a high school crush that Clark had somehow manage to aggrandize into some epic love." Lionel waved her off. "No, Chloe, it was you. You were that thing. The thing that he cared about above all else, the thing that would kill him to lose."

"You're wrong." Chloe shook her head. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"Really?" Lionel raised his eyebrows. "When was the last time you talked to someone from Smallville? Saw Clark?"

"I don't really keep in touch." Chloe said.

"Then you don't know." Lionel smiled. "Clark and Lana broke up. She just couldn't take it anymore, the way he mourned for you, for his loss of you." Chloe swallowed as Lionel continued. "Do you see what I've done Chloe?" She shook her head no, she really didn't and it was so obvious that he wanted to explain it to her. "I've broken him."

"No." Chloe said, her throat a little scratchy.

"Yes." Lionel nodded, smiling maniacally. "It wasn't just about taking away his favorite toy. It was so much more than that. You were his anchor Chloe. You were the reason that he hadn't given up years ago. You were the paragon of goodness and justice in his life and I took that away from him. I took it away from him, and I tainted it, when you married Lex. You weren't pure anymore, you couldn't be if you were married to Lex. Clark's one true enemy." Chloe felt tears roll down her cheeks. "Kal-El was sent to earth for a purpose, do you remember?"

"His destiny." Chloe said.

"His destiny." Lionel nodded. "The destiny that I was to help him find, that I was to guide him through. But he's given that up now, he's lost hope in humanity, he no longer wants to save us, because after losing you, he's not sure there's anything left to save."

"Clark wouldn't just give up like that." Chloe shook her head.

"Oh he wasn't going to." Lionel shook his head. "Not without a little help. You see there was no way that he was going to buy that you actually loved Lex, that you actually cared for the man who caused so much pain and destruction in his life. Not without a little help, a few suggestions, a push in the right direction. Maybe a mention here or there of how I always thought you and Alexander were a little closer than you pretended to be. Maybe a little seed of doubt, planted as to how you could be so good at what you did without prior knowledge. You always seemed to be one step ahead of Lex didn't you, maybe that was because you were working with him. If you plant small seeds, eventually people feed them, dwell on them, until they grow and they root themselves and then they're so enormous that's all they can see. All I had to do was plant a few seeds and the rest as they say is history."

It was Lionel, all along, Lionel who turned Clark against her, and her silence, her devotion to Lex that feed his suspicions, just as Lionel wanted it too. "Oh God." Chloe put her head between her legs, feeling a little light headed.

"Oh God indeed." Lionel said, pleased with himself as Chloe tried to control her breathing. "It worked out even better than I had planned." He smiled. "When Clark actually left Lex to die in that explosion, well, I almost couldn't believe it."

"What about Lex?" Chloe asked confused. "Was he just a means to an end? Did he even have anything to do with this?"

"My dear." He smiled. "This was never about Lex. It was nice to be able to knock him down a few pegs. He was getting a little full of himself, that mess with Patricia, thinking that he could get one up on me, take something that was mine. He needed to be put back in his place but it was never really about him." He stood up. "Although, it was nice to know that I was condemning him to a loveless marriage."

Chloe barely registered when Lionel helped her out of her seat and into the elevator. She must have pushed the button for the ground floor because it opened in the lobby and she walked outside. It had started raining but she didn't notice or she didn't care. Lionel, she'd known, since high school she'd known what kind of man he was but she'd thought he'd changed.

"_Miss Sullivan, you should have known me well enough by now to realize that I've always been the villain of this story."_

Chloe walked through the rain, now fully realizing everything that had been done, all because of one marriage. All the lives that had been ruined, not just hers, but Clark's, Oliver's, even Lex's. He was just a pawn, an unwilling participate in an endgame strategy of Lionel versus Clark, but then again so was she. As much as she'd lost in this marriage, he'd lost too. But something that Lionel hadn't expected happened, Lex wasn't unhappy in the marriage, he wasn't unhappy with her. Maybe Chloe didn't believe yet that he had feelings for her, but maybe he needed her, and maybe she needed him.

Lex looked up from the computer to see Chloe standing in the doorway, she was soaking wet and shivering. He was up and at her side in seconds. "What…"

"I took a walk." She said as he grabbed the blanket off the couch and wrapped it around her shoulders.

"In the rain?" He said rubbing her arms, drying her off.

"I needed to think." She shrugged. "I didn't know it was going to rain."

"You should go change." Lex said. "Take a hot bath."

"No, I need to talk to you." She shook her head and he looked at her waiting for her to continue. But she didn't say anything, instead she leaned closer to him, he didn't move, he didn't meet her halfway, he didn't help her at all. She paused, her lips hovering over his before reaching forward and kissing him. He let her, let her do what she needed, what she wanted without contributing. It took an enormous amount of strength and will power not to wrap his arms around her waist and pull her closer but she needed to do this. When she pulled away she looked at him, confused. "Does it have to mean something?" She whispered and closed her eyes. "Can we just be two people who need each other?"

"We could." Lex nodded.

"Does it have to mean something?" She pleaded with him, to tell her what she wanted to hear.

"It doesn't." He shook his head and she seemed relieved. "But it will." The worry was back on her face and she took a step back. He took a step forward. "What do you want Chloe?" He put a hand on either side of her waist and leaned in, kissing her softly. "What do you want?" He whispered in her mouth.

"You." She said, dropping the blanket to the ground and putting her hands on his neck. "I want you." She said before kissing him again, more urgently, more hungrily than before.

Chloe stared at the wall of the bedroom she shared with Lex, trying to even out her breathing which was hard as he stroked a feather light touch up and down her back. Neither one of them said anything, neither one knew what to say. Her hand was splayed across his bare chest, there was not an inch of her that wasn't touching him somewhere and she had never been as aware of her own body as she was in that very instant.

There were so many thoughts swirling around in her head. What had she done? Why had she done it? When could she do it again? To keep herself going insane listening to the thoughts only she could hear she spoke before she could stop herself. "Lex." Her voice was a whisper, she didn't want to break whatever moment they were in, the strange bubble of time where they weren't Lex Luther and Chloe Sullivan Luther, where they were a boy and a girl, a man and a woman, basking in the afterglow.

"Hmm." He responded, his voice a little sleepy as she lifted her head to look up at him. His eyes opened when he felt her gaze on him and all the questions and concerns she had before left her, she couldn't bring them up now, she wouldn't bring them up now, they could wait until tomorrow, hell they could wait until ten years from now. He was looking at her strangely and she realized she had yet to speak so she opened her mouth and said the first thing that came into her head.

"You're sleeping in the wet spot." She smiled turning her body around so her back was facing him and she heard a small chuckle, the one she'd come to realize meant something had surprised him. She closed her eyes and felt herself drifting off to sleep, trying not to think about how aware she was of the fact that she was no longer touching Lex. Suddenly a hand slid across her stomach and hard body pressed against her back as Lex settled in and placed a kiss on her neck. His hand seemed to search for hers and she only thought for a second before giving in and grabbing his hand, intertwining their fingers.

* * *

Present Day

Oliver stood up from the couch and Chloe sighed. She knew he was going to act like this. "So you and Lex." He paused unsure how to word it. "Your marriage wasn't always so fake once upon a time?"

"I never meant for it to happen." Chloe explained. "I never even thought that it could happen, but it happened. And I can't take it back and at that point in my life…I don't want to take it back. You have to understand, he's my husband, and we lived together for three years and I didn't have anyone else. So yeah, at some point the fake marriage became sort of like a real marriage."

Chloe sighed as Oliver nodded at her. "And now?" He turned to face her. "What is it now?"

"Now?" Chloe leaned back against the couch. "Now it's complicated."

"But not like…I mean you're not happy anymore right?" Oliver asked her. "You wouldn't have done what you did with me the other night if you were happy."

"I'm not happy." Chloe shook her head. "I haven't been happy in a couple of years. Something happened, and then I caught him in bed with one of my friends and now for the most part, it's a fake marriage again."

"What does that mean?" Oliver asked her. "For the most part?"

"Well for my part." Chloe said. "Lex is very persistent." She almost smiled but stopped herself. "He's been trying to win me back ever since…show me how sorry he is, he wants to start over but I just couldn't, I can't."

"Do you love him?" Oliver asked her. "Did you ever love him?"

"No, I don't know. I can't just say no to that as much as you want me to, as much as I want to be able to. So much happened and honestly there wasn't always time to deal with my feelings but, I don't think I ever felt for him what he felt for me and sometimes I feel bad about that but look." She grabbed Oliver's arm to stop him from pacing. "Are we still married yes, up until last week, when you showed up on my balcony, were we still sleeping together? Occasionally, but not because…I'm a woman Oliver, a woman stuck in a marriage with a man and frankly I have needs and I can't sit here and apologize to you for something when at the time I thought you were dead so I'm not going to."

"So even after he cheated, you still slept with him?"

"It became a sort of game." Chloe tried to explain. "To see who would break first, who would give in. Sometimes I won, sometimes I lost, but it doesn't mean anything other than the fact that Lex knows how to push my buttons." Oliver sighed. "But ever since you kissed me, no wait, even before that, from the day I got your letter, from the moment I knew you were alive, I haven't slept with him again."

"Ok." Oliver took a deep breath. "So what does this mean?"

"Nothing changes for me." She told him. "Not the way I feel about you, not what we did, nothing. I love you. It doesn't change anything for me. The question is what does it change for you?"

Oliver sighed and looked over at her. "Ok, if it hadn't been Lex it would have been someone else. I was gone for eight years, and I didn't exactly declare my love for you before I left, I couldn't have really expected you to wait for me, especially when you thought I was dead."

"But it wasn't someone else." Chloe pointed out. "It was Lex."

Oliver closed his eyes. "Chloe, I love you, I have loved, and I'm going to keep loving you. No matter what happened in the past. No matter what you did, or what was done. Am I thrilled about this? No. Is it going to keep me from seeing you?" He smiled at her. "No. Is it going to keep me from loving you? Never."

"You're sure about this?" Chloe bit her bottom lip nervously.

"Chloe, you are the absolute, only thing in my life that I have ever been sure of." He kissed her. "We all have a past; this is just a part of yours."

"You're ok with this?" Chloe asked. "Really?"

"No." Oliver said. "I'm not ok with it; maybe someday I'll be ok with it." Her face fell. "But it's not you; it's not what happened that I have a problem with. It's the fact that it happened at all, the whole situation. It's the fact that I wasn't here to stop it, to help you, to keep you from ever having to go through any of that."

"So not your fault." Chloe assured him. "If I can't blame myself for what happened to you, you can't blame yourself for what happened to me. Ok?"

"Deal." Oliver smiled.

"Can you please kiss me now?" Chloe asked.

"That I can do." He grabbed her face and kissed her, pushing her down onto the couch and then his phone rang.

"Don't." Chloe whined as he pulled away to answer it.

"I have to." Oliver said kissing her lightly before putting the phone to his ear. "Hey. Actually…" Oliver turned to look at Chloe. "You know, now might be a good time. Clock tower."

"Did you just tell someone where you were?" Chloe sat up straighter.

"Look, there's someone that wants to talk to you." Oliver said standing up. "And he thought it would be better to do it while I was around so just…don't freak out."

Chloe stood up cautiously and turned when a gust of wind almost knocked her over. When the wind was done, there was Bart, standing there with an unreadable expression on his face. "Bart?" She whispered.

"Hey Chloe." He smiled that lopsided smile that used to be so contagious but now, it made her stomach turn. She looked at Oliver then at Bart and then she grabbed her bag.

"No." She said shaking her head. "No, no, no. What is he doing here?" Chloe glared at Oliver as she backed away toward the elevator.

"Chloe." Bart stepped forward and she took another step back, flattening herself against the wall as she frantically pressed the call button.

"No, you stay the hell away from me." She screamed. "I can't believe you would bring him here."

"He wants to apologize." Oliver said surprised at Chloe's outburst.

"Apologize?" Chloe turned and glared at Bart. "You want to apologize?" She laughed a hollow laugh. "You think it's that easy? You think after what happened I'm sorry is going to make it all better?"

"No." Bart shook his head. "I know that nothing can make it better, every. I know Chloe, but please, just hear me out."

"No." She shook her head, unsure when she started crying. "No, you stay away from me, I never want to see you again." The elevator dinged, signaling it's arrival and Chloe walked in, glaring the whole time.

"I'm sorry." Oliver turned to Bart. "I don't know what that was about. I mean, she was pretty upset when you guys accused her of killing me but that was just strange."

"That's not why she's mad." Bart turned to Oliver.

"What? Why is she mad then?" Oliver asked confused. Bart didn't say anything and Oliver started getting upset. "Bart, what's going on? What happened?"


	7. Chapter 7

* * *

Six Years Ago

She never meant for it to happen, never meant for things to get to this point after that first night. That was supposed to be it, it was supposed to be a one time thing but it happened again, and then again and then she got tired of making excuses for it. At first it was about Lionel, being with Lex, truly being with Lex felt like a strike against him, a small way she could fight back for all that had happened, all that had been done, but somewhere along the line it stopped being about Lionel and started being about Lex. It was about the way he made her feel, the way he made her body feel. It was about so many things that she wasn't ready to admit, but she wasn't ready to give up either. But it was never supposed to go this far.

"Maybe you're pregnant." The words swirled around in Chloe's head so fast she couldn't grasp onto them, make them make sense, make them real. She couldn't believe she didn't figure it out sooner; she used to be a reporter, a damn good reporter. At one point in time she didn't even have to think too hard and she could figure out the secret identities of the world's superheroes. Maybe she was in denial, maybe she was too involved in other things but she couldn't believe it actually took someone else to make her see.

She used to love the smell of Orchids so she couldn't understand why, when Leslie plopped her down in front of the florist table, stacked high with Orchids ready to be sorted and made into bouquets for the party later that night, she was out of her seat in two seconds flat and in the bathroom throwing up her breakfast. It was strange but Chloe just shook it off, rinsed her mouth out and walked back outside with all the other girls and took her seat in front of the offending flowers. It took less than a second that time and she didn't make it as far as the bathroom this time, detouring to the bushes to divest herself of the rest of the food in her stomach. This got her friends worried and they led her to a seat, far away from the flowers. Chloe was trying to figure out what she'd had for dinner the night before, what could possibly have made her so violently ill when Petra offered the offending suggestion. "Maybe you're pregnant."

"Pregnant?" Chloe looked up at the girls surrounding her and then down at her stomach. "Pregnant." She said again before throwing her hand over her mouth, pushing past the girls and running back into the bathroom. There was nothing left to throw up now and after five minutes, when she'd convinced her she was ok, she pulled away from the toilet to splash some water on her face. She looked at herself in the mirror, pale and frightened and closed her eyes. Could she be pregnant? She wondered and then she remembered, almost two months ago. Lex had dragged her to some business dinner that was boring her to death and to keep herself entertained she decided to play a little game called, "lets mess with Lex". She loved watching how he managed to keep his cool in…sticky situations. She would never ever play poker with him, she knew that much.

It had started innocent enough, her hand under the table, resting on his knee. Then she'd slowly rubbed her thumb until she felt him shiver slightly. That was her cue to inch her hand up his thigh. She allowed herself a slight smile when she felt his hand on hers, stopping her movement. She leaned forward in her seat and smiled at him, offering him the challenge. He looked at her a second before releasing her hand, accepting the challenge. She remembered feeling satisfied when he broke off in mid conversation to cough and Chloe knew that cough was to cover up a hitch in his voice. She remembered excusing herself to the bathroom, happy in her win over Lex and then she remembered him waiting for her outside, pushing her back in. Then came the hurried desperation to divest her of her underwear, no care for protection, no time in the urgency, and then not much else until she was situating her dress and walking back to the table, to the knowing looks of Lex's dinner companions as he smiled and toasted, a deal made.

She could be pregnant, she thought about it harder now, she was late, she hadn't even realized. She remembered other things that should have clued her in, being tired lately, cranky emotional, and an exchange with Lex from the day before.

_Chloe stared at herself in the bathroom mirror, a frown on her face. "Do my boobs look bigger to you?" She turned her head over her shoulder to the bedroom where Lex was pulling on a shirt. He raised his eyebrows at her and she sighed. "They feel bigger." _

"_I'm not gonna complain." He leered at her and walked in the bathroom to stand behind her. _

"_I figured as much." Chloe rolled her eyes at him. "They're bigger." _

"_If you say so." He smiled, kissing her cheek before grabbing his jacket and walking out of the room. _

She didn't think anything of it at the time, but now putting them all together the conclusion was undeniable. Swollen boobs, being tired, being late, morning sickness. She was pregnant. "Oh God." She sunk down on the closed toilet seat and ran her fingers over her face. Did she want to be pregnant? She'd always assumed that she'd have kids someday. This was never her ideal situation, in fact ever since she'd read that line in the contract Lionel had drawn up she'd almost given up her hopes to be a mother. She didn't want to bring a child into this situation, into a marriage only held together by mutual blackmail on the part of the participants. Sure she and Lex had a somewhat closer relationship than at the beginning of the marriage but she didn't love him, he didn't love her. At the end of the day the marriage still wasn't real. At least thats what she told herself.

She jumped when there was a knock on the door and Chloe pulled herself together and opened it to see Leslie standing there smiling sadly at her. "No use getting all worked up over nothing." She said pushing past Chloe to the cabinet under the sink and pulling out a handful of pregnancy tests, offering them to Chloe. "Robert and I have been trying." She explained at Chloe's confused look. She grabbed the one that looked the least confusing and nodded her thanks at Leslie as she left Chloe in the bathroom to take the test.

She followed the directions in a daze and set the stick on the counter as she stared at her watch. Her eyes kept drifting to her wedding ring and she pulled it off her finger and looked at it intently. Her hand felt strange, this the first time in four years that she'd taken the wedding ring off and she felt a little naked without it. She wasn't prepared for that, that strange feeling just from removing her wedding ring, a pang in her gut. She thought about it more, about the feeling she'd had when she first slipped the ring on her finger, the way her stomach lurched for the first few months every time she caught sight of it, unused to seeing her hand so well decorated, and then thought about now, how she felt without it.

Maybe…she sighed, maybe Lex was right. Maybe their marriage had become more than just a contract between two unwilling partners. Maybe they were more than just two people trying to make the best of a bad situation. Maybe they were friends now, maybe they were more. The small plastic stick sitting ominously on the bathroom counter was forcing Chloe to confront feelings she'd been burying deep inside for the past year.

Lex had become more to her than she ever thought he would be. He was all she had, all she really had in this world and before she had seen that as a bad thing, as a problem but lately she had seen it as comforting. He took care of her, and not in the sense that he was her husband and he provided for her, he took care of her. When she was sick, he would take days off work, nurse her back to health. He was her friend, her confidant, she could find herself sitting and talking to him for hours about everything, about nothing. He was her lover, they'd been sharing the bed as a truly married couple for almost a year now. He was constantly surprising her, whether it was remembering her birthday, and remembering she didn't like to make a big deal of it, having a small dinner for two at the house, or just coming home in the middle of the day to have lunch with her, make a picnic, and take it out to the lake. He listened to her in things concerning the house, money, even business to her surprise, really listened sometimes taking her ideas and running with them, implementing them at LutherCorp.

She slipped the ring back on her finger and somehow felt better. She could do this, she could bring a baby into this world, into this life. She could raise a child in this situation and never fear that it wasn't getting enough love, wasn't being cared for. A Luther child would never want for anything, the best schools, the best nanny's the best that money could buy but she could feel down in her gut that a child born to Chloe and Lex would be loved, would be cherished, would be more than fine. Regardless of how the marriage had begun, Chloe could admit now that's not what it was anymore, that's not what it had become. She checked her watch again and took a deep breath and walked over to the counter. "Pink means you're pregnant, blue means you're not." She whispered to herself and stared down at a decidedly pink stripe.

* * *

The rest of the day was a blur. The first thing Leslie had said after seeing Chloe's face, after squealing with delight was to think rationally. "All the evidence is pointing to pregnant." She told Chloe. "But tests can be wrong; you need to set up an appointment with your doctor." Chloe nodded and called right away. Surprisingly her doctor was able to squeeze her in that afternoon but the results wouldn't be ready until the next morning.

She was quiet all through diner, unable to eat partly from nerves and partly because the plate of food in front of her was the farthest thing from appetizing that she'd seen in a while. She barely listened to Lex's story about something that had happened at the office. She was exhausted and excused herself to bed straight after dinner and though worried that she wouldn't be able to sleep a wink was out before her head hit the pillow. She was roused awake later that night when Lex climbed into bed. She waited for his arm to wrap around her waist, his body to mold in behind hers but he didn't. Instead she felt a feather light touch on her forehead and he eyes fluttered open confused. "Hey." She said sleepily as he removed his head from her face.

"Hey." He said to her, his face a little confused.

"What are you doing?" She turned around to face him.

"Seeing if you had a temperature." He said sheepishly. "You didn't look so good earlier and you barely touched your food."

In that moment Chloe smiled and sat up. "I need to talk to you about something, and I need you to be ok with it, I need you to be more than ok with it, I need you to be happy about it." Lex sat up in bed confused but attentive and nodded at her. "I need you to be happy about it because I spent all day convincing myself that I was happy about it and then I realized I didn't need to convince myself, because I was happy, I am happy about it so I need you to be happy about it."

"Ok." Lex said slowly.

"I think…I might be…pregnant." She said, biting her lower lip as she watched a myriad of emotions fly across his face. Shock, surprise, confusion, worry, and then a smile. "I told you my boobs felt bigger and I'm two weeks late plus I puked all over Leslie Birches gardenias this morning and then the test was pink so I called Dr. Garter and he did the blood test but the results won't be in until tomorrow." Lex didn't say anything as she babbled on. "Lex?" She looked at him confused.

"A baby?" He asked her, his hand almost of its own violation moving to her still very flat stomach. She nodded. "Our baby?" He looked up at her. "A baby we made?"

"Lex are you happy about this?" She whispered. He leaned in and kissed her, softly, tenderly.

"Of course I'm happy about this." He said kissing her again before moving his head to her stomach and lying there. "A baby."

"If I am pregnant." Chloe told him as he pressed his ear firmly against her belly button. "The baby is smaller than a pea right now." She pointed out, laughter on the tip of her tongue.

Lex looked up at her sheepishly and smiled. "A baby?"

"Yeah." She grabbed the hand still on her stomach. "A baby. Our baby." She said.

"And…" He titled his head and looked at her seriously. "You're happy about this?" He said. "Really happy about this?"

"I'm happy." She nodded. "I'm really, really….I'm happy." She could feel the tears stinging her eyes as Lex kissed her again.

"We made a baby." He said in awe as she laughed at him.

"We did." She smiled and she stroked his cheek, the worry was still on his face, worry about Chloe, about how she felt and she had the most overwhelming urge to show him how happy she was. She leaned in this time and kissed him. He was surprised but didn't say anything. Chloe wasn't the instigator usually, ever, it was always Lex so he wasn't sure at first what she was doing until her hands moved from his face and traveled down his chest, pushing him down on the bed as she moved to straddle him. He pulled away from her and looked up, confused, aroused, hopeful. "I'm happy." She said to him, smiling as she bent down again and kissed him.

When she woke up the next morning the bed was empty. She smiled thinking of the night before, of how much better it had been, once she let go of her insecurities, her issues, and realized that for the first time in years, she was happy in this marriage, happy with her life, happy with Lex. She lazily walked down to the kitchen to find it empty. Lex must have already had his breakfast and headed to the office. She strolled down the hall, unable to stop smiling as she opened the office door and saw Lex at his desk working intently on something. He had his concentration face on, that's what Chloe called it. His eyes were narrowed, his brow furrowed as he studied something on the screen. "Morning." She called from the doorway and he looked up, his face instantly relaxing, a slow easy smile replacing the frown from before.

"Morning." Lex said to her and then nodded behind her. She turned to see Mary, his assistant in the corning pacing back and forth on the phone, and then realized that she was still in her robe. She smiled sheepishly and walked over to Lex's desk.

"You left without walking me up this morning." She playfully scolded him walking around the desk to his side.

"You were tired." He countered as he turned his chair to face her and he was surprised when she slipped into his lap.

"Not too tired." She purred in his ear before kissing him, deeply.

"Chloe." He said to her a little confused. "Are you feeling ok?" He asked her.

"Never better." She smiled to him, her fingers lightly tracing the top of his shirt collar, grazing the skin of his neck and sending a shiver down his spine. "I'm not sure if it's the hormones…" She whispered in his head. "But if I don't have you inside me in the next twenty seconds, I'm positive I'll explode."

"Mary." Lex practically barked and Mary jumped about two feet in the air. "Take an early lunch."

"It's ten in the morning." She said confused but the look on Lex's face had her scurrying for the door without another question. As soon as Chloe heard the door close she moved to straddle Lex. The surprise on his face from her more than amorous advances was nothing compared to the look when he realized she hadn't even bothered to get dressed, but simply thrown on her robe.

"Chloe…" Lex said confused when he realized in the span of ten seconds she'd managed to pull his shirt out from his pants and get his belt off.

"Stop talking." She said kissing his deeply again and all questions flew out of his mind. His hands gripped her thighs and traveled under her robe to her hips, applying slight pressure. She got the hint and lifted up on her knees. Before Lex could even think about moving his hands to his zipper, Chloe had her hands in his pants, and suddenly he was out and then just as suddenly Chloe impaled herself on him so hard his head flew back and slammed into the chair, the sensation, the pleasure so intense he had to fight the urge to cry out, he didn't have time to register it because just as quickly she was up again, slowly pulling herself off him only to slam down once more. Her hands gripped tightly on his shoulders as she moved with such and urgency, such a wild abandon that he'd never before seen or felt with her. His hand moved from her hips to her butt, pulling her closer, pushing her further down, pushing himself further in. Just as suddenly as it started, it was over, Chloe finishing a second before Lex and collapsing on top of him.

His hands moved up from her butt and settled on her back, pulling her closer, holding her tight as he let the emotions wash over him, while he tried to get his breathing under control. "That was…" He panted but she wasn't listening. Not content to bask in the afterglow she was tearing at his tie, ripping at the buttons on his shirt.

"You have too many clothes on." She mumbled against his ear and he smiled, he could get to these hormones.

"Mr. Luther…" Mary's nervous voice sounded over the intercom. "There's a phone call for Ms. Luther, a Doctor Garter." Lex pulled himself from Chloe with a sigh and slapped his hand on the phone. "Take a message." He said, ready to get back to Chloe, but she was up, wrapping the robe around her as she shook her head at him, and it hit him, Dr. Garter, the test results. "Put him through." He said and held the phone out to Chloe who took it smiling as he adjusted his pants and tie. He could only hear her side of the conversation, a lot of mumbling mainly. By the time he had his shirt on and was buttoning the last button she hung up.

"He wants to see me." She said to Lex, her brow furrowed.

"Nothing's…wrong?" He asked concerned.

"I don't think so." Chloe said.

"But he couldn't tell you over the phone?" Lex asked.

"I'm gonna get dressed." She pulled the robe around her tighter and Lex nodded.

"I'll go with you."

"Mr. Luther." Mary came on the intercom again. "You're eleven o'clock is here."

"I'm fine." Chloe said as Lex groaned. "It's fine. Stay here, work." She kissed him softly. "I'll be back soon." He nodded as he watched her take the steps up to the landing, going out the back way so not to run into his eleven o'clock in her robe.

* * *

Lex couldn't concentrate at all during the meeting. "Am I boring you Mr. Luther?"

"I'm sorry." Lex leaned forward. "I'm not going to be very productive today, why don't we have Mary reschedule." He stood up.

"Is everything ok?" Senator Blake looked at him confused. Lex didn't reschedule things.

"My wife had a doctor's appointment this afternoon." Lex smiled. "No problems, I'm just a little anxious to see her."

"Ah." The Senator nodded knowingly. "Pregnant?" Lex looked at the old man surprised. "You have that look about you. That pure happiness mixed with overwhelming dread that only a pregnancy can do to a man."

"She's getting the test results now." Lex admitted.

"Then I won't keep you." The Senator started to pack up his briefcase as the door to the office swung open. The two men looked over to find Chloe standing there, staring in the room, her expression unreadable. Lex just stared at her until she smiled and gave him a slight nod. "Ah." The Senator stood up. "I definitely won't keep you. I'll have your secretary schedule another appointment for next week."

"Thank you sir." Lex said without looking at him, his eyes still on Chloe as she made her way into the room.

"Congratulations Ms. Luther." He nodded at Chloe on his way out but she didn't pay attention.

"So we're…" Lex asked.

"Yeah."

"Gonna have a…"

"Yeah." Chloe said again.

"And everything's….ok?" He asked concerned.

"Yeah." She smiled. "Well, not ok but not bad." She moved closer in the room and sat down, Lex was by her side in seconds. "The reason he wanted to see me was because my blood pressure was slightly high, which is common in a lot of pregnancies." She assured Lex before he had a chance to worry about it. "He just wanted to prescribe me some pre-natal vitamins and an something to keep my blood pressure in check."

"So everything's ok?" She nodded. "And we're going to have a baby?" She nodded again. "And we're both happy about this?"

"Couldn't be happier." She assured him.

"When can we start telling people?" He asked her.

"Not until after the third month to be safe." She said yawning. "God, I'm exhausted. I'm going to go lay down."

* * *

"If I don't get my latte in two minutes head are going to star to roll." Lex sighed, he'd been fairly content the past couple of years to live without the grating demanding voice that was Lois Lane in his life but he soldiered on. "Seriously." Lois screamed digging through the massive pile of papers on her desk in her search for something. Lex caught sight of an intern running as quickly and carefully as he could through the news room with a large cup of coffee and smiled. When approaching a hostile enemy, always come bearing gifts. He reached out and snatched the cup from the boys hands and nodded at him to tell him it was ok.

"Here." Lex handed the cup to Lois and she tore it from his hands.

"It's about time, you know I don't know what they're teaching you guys today in journalism school, but in my day we respected our elders." Lois said. "And we got them the coffee they requested in a timely manner."

"In your day?" Lex asked amused.

Lex watched as she registered his voice, realized who he was and slowly lifted her head to look at him. "Lex." She set the coffee down, not wanting it anymore, now that she knew it had come from him. "What are you doing here?"

"I still own this paper." He pointed out.

"Yes, but you haven't worked here in two years." Lois pointed out. "Finally come to fire me?"

"No." Lex shook his head. "Just to talk, do you have a minute?"

"What the hell." She stood up and motioned for him to follow her into the editor's office. "Perry need your office for a minute."

"Lane, you do know that my title is Editor in Chief of the Daily Planet, not Butt Monkey to Lois Lane?" He glared at her and she just motioned behind her where Lex was walking in the room.

"Perry." Lex nodded. "Do you mind if we borrow the room for a minute, I need to speak with Ms. Lane."

"Sure thing Mr. Luther." Perry got up and walked out, closing the door behind him.

"Ok, go." Lois moved and sat in Perry's chair. Lex had to give it to her, her first move was to put herself in the seat of power in the room, she'd learned a lot in the past few years.

"I would be happy to live out the rest of my days and never cross your path again, but you are family." Lex pointed out and Lois scoffed. "You're Chloe's family." He amended. Lois didn't say anything she just leaned back in her seat to see where he was going with this. "She's pregnant." This got her attention. She sat up slowly.

"Pregnant?" Lois asked.

"Yes, pregnant, as in having a baby." Lex clarified. "And she didn't send me here, and she would never say anything but she's lonely. She has a few friends but none of them are great, she needs family. She needs you."

"My baby cousin's having a baby?" Lois asked again.

"I know how you feel about me, and I know how you feel about our marriage, but I love her, and now she's bringing my child into this world and, as much as this pains me to say, she needs you."

"Why wouldn't she come to me herself?" Lois wondered.

"The last time you spoke you made it obvious how you felt about us, how you felt about her, and since you haven't spoken to her since, she assumed you wouldn't care." Lex pointed out.

"Well that stupid." Lois said and Lex smiled slightly. "Of course I care. Chloe's having a baby." She smiled and stood up. "Is it a boy or a girl?" Lois asked. "Or are you doing that whole, "we want to be surprised" thing because that's dumb, you need to know what to buy."

"It's too soon for that." Lex told her. "We don't know yet."

"Oh." Lois sighed. "Well that's ok, there are tons of baby things that are good for boys or girls. Has she had a shower yet?" Lois asked. "No it's soon for that too. That's ok, I'll throw her one later." She wasn't even talking to Lex anymore, she was talking to herself now, making her way to the door as she made plans out loud. She walked into the newsroom. "I'm leaving early today Perry, got some errands to run."

"Lane you can't just decide to leave in the middle of the, she's not listening, she's just leaving." Perry called after her as she walked out of the door, not waiting for permission. "That woman's going to be the death of me." Perry said as Lex walked out of the office.

"Better you than me." He clapped the man on his back and walked out of the building.

* * *

Chloe was sitting in the kitchen orchestrating what Lex could only describe as the strangest thing he'd ever seen. "Ok." Hill said pulling something off of the counter. "Bacon." She held it in front of Chloe's face and she closed her eyes, swallowed hard and shook her head. "That's a no on the bacon." Peter nodded and proceeded to divest the freezer of all the bacon. "Moving on to hamburger."

"If you put that in my face I'm going to barf on your shoes." Chloe said and Hill immediately threw the plate in the trash.

"No hamburger."

"You know what?" Chloe said. "All the meat's gonna have to go."

"What exactly am I supposed to eat?" Lex asked as they emptied the freezer of everything except a gallon of ice cream and a box of baking soda.

"Eat the baking soda." Chloe glared at him. "How do you think I feel?" She hadn't been able to keep much down the past few weeks and every time she went in the kitchen to get something to eat, something new made her sick. So she was cleansing the house.

"Ok, moving onto the fridge." She pulled out a bucket. "How are we feeling about eggs?" Chloe looked down into the bucket, back up at Hill and shook her head. The woman nodded dumping all the eggs into the over flowing trash bag. She grabbed the next thing on the shelf and hesitantly held it out to Chloe. "Butter?"

Chloe looked at the butter, smelled the butter, even stuck her finger in it and tasted the butter then looked up smiling. "The butter can stay."

"The butter can stay." Hill smiled putting it back in the fridge and Lex smiled.

"Great, so I can eat butter." He said.

"You can mix it with the baking soda." Chloe joked with him.

"Please tell me you're not complaining." A voice called out from the doorway. "You're the one who did this to her you know, you should have to suffer at least a little bit."

Chloe turned around slowly, not believing her ears, or her eyes when she finally saw her. Lois was standing in the doorway to the kitchen smiling. "Hey cuz, the doorman let me up, didn't even ask for ID I just told him I was your cousin and he waved me on through, you really need to look into the security measures in this place." She told Lex.

"I'll get right on that." He assured her.

"You better or I'm writing an expose." She threatened.

"Lois, what are you doing here?" Chloe jumped off her stool and looked at her cousin quizzically.

"You're pregnant." Lois said as if Chloe had just asked the stupidest question in the world. Chloe looked from Lois to the ground and noticed that her feet were practically buried with shopping bags. "I know I went a little overboard with the shopping but Lex said that you didn't know if it was a boy or a girl. Oh!" She jumped up and then bent down and started digging through the bags until she re-emerged triumphantly. "Tell me that these are not absolutely the most adorable thing you've ever seen in your entire life." She wiggled a pair of teeny tiny shoes and Chloe smiled.

"The most adorable." Chloe nodded. "Absolutely."

"Ok, I'm going to the living room." Lois bent down and gathered all the bags. "So I can show you everything else I bought."

"I'll be right there."

"You know." Lois turned her attention to Lex. "It's really just common courtesy to offer your quest a drink."

"Of course, Lois can I offer you a drink?" Lex moved to the fridge and opened it up, looked for a minute and then turned back to her. "We have water, and more water."

"Wow." Lois smiled. "Lifestyles of the rich and famous."

"Everything else makes me sick." Chloe apologized.

"Oh wait." Lex reached in the back of the fridge and emerged with a bottle. "We have one bottle of sparkling water left."

"No." Chloe glared at him and he sighed before turning to the sink and pouring it out. Lois looked at Chloe confused. "Bubbles, just the thought of bubbles swirling around in my…" She brought a hand to her mouth and ran from the room.

"They make her sick." Lex offered.

"I'll take a bottled water." Lois smiled and Lex handed one to her before she left for the living room.

Chloe finished puking, walked into the living room and stopped in her tracks, it looked like baby Gap had thrown up in there. All of Lois' purchases were strewn over the couch, the chairs, the coffee table. Chloe walked forward cautiously and picked up a onesie from the side table that said, "If you think I'm bald, you should see my dad." She looked up at Lois and smiled. "Cute."

"I know right." Lois was digging through a pile on the sofa and Chloe took a deep breath.

"Lois…" Chloe's voice stopped her movements and she took a deep breath before turning around.

"Look, I was a bitch. I was actually the world's biggest bitch and I was wrong, and stupid and I'm sorry and I missed you but can we just not do the thing where we talk about it to death and then hug and just skip straight to the hugging?" Lois asked. "Because we're family, so like by law you have to forgive me."

"Yeah we can skip to the hugging." Chloe nodded.

"Good." Lois ran over to Chloe and practically knocked her down with the force of the hug.

"I missed you too Lo." Chloe tried to will herself not to cry.

"Ok." Lois pulled back and turned around so Chloe couldn't see her wiping her eyes. "Now, tell me that this is not the softest thing in the world." She turned back around with a small yellow blanket and Chloe reached out to feel it.

"Wow."

"Yeah." She smiled and folded up the blanket before turning back to the pile. "Ok, somewhere in here are the cutest little hats…" She started digging when suddenly the alarm on Chloe's phone went off. Before she had a chance to dig it out of her bag, a small clock on the mantle started to beep, and then the computer.

"Uh, is there a security breach in sector seven?" Lois joked.

Chloe smiled at her as she turned off her phone and then walked to the computer. "No, it's just two o'clock."

"Ok." Lois said confused as she turned off the other alarms.

"Ms. Luther." Hill walked into the living room. "It's two o'clock."

"Thank you Hill." Chloe nodded at her while Lois looked on even more confused.

"You guys are serious about two o'clock aren't you?"

"It's…" Chloe started to brush it off when Lex walked in the room.

"Chloe, it's two." He said holding a plate in front of him.

"Is that a bagel with cream cheese?" She asked when she turned to face him.

"Yes." Lex said slowly stopping in his tracks.

"Where did you get cream cheese, I threw all the cream cheese out yesterday." She gasped and pointed at him. "You have a secret stash."

"Now Chloe." Lex held a hand up to appease her.

"Oh, you are so in trouble." She took two steps toward him and then saw the bagel again, covered her mouth and again went running to the bathroom.

Lex looked down at his uneaten bagel sighed and then threw it in the trash. "I'm going to starve to death." He mumbled before walking over to Chloe's purse and digging around for a minute. He pulled out a small bottle and set it on the coffee table.

"So what's up with two o'clock?" Lois asked him, watching his movements as he went to a drawer, pulled out a pad and something else.

"She's got to take her medicine." Lex said. "She really doesn't like it so we kind of have to force her."

"It smells like compost." Chloe said from the doorway.

"Take it." Lex argued. Chloe glared and opened the bottle pulling out a pill and then grabbing Lois' water bottle. She took the pill, a disgusted expression on her face and handed Lois the water back. "Sit." Lex ordered her and she sat down on the couch.

"Did you find the hats?" Chloe asked as Lex slipped something on her arm.

"What exactly is going on here?" Lois sat down.

"I've just got a slight case of hypertension." Chloe told her. "Nothing to worry about its common in a lot of pregnancies. I just have to keep track of my blood pressure and take those gross pills."

"But you're fine?" Lois asked. "The baby's fine?"

"We're both good." Chloe nodded.

"No." Lex told her as he wrote something down in the notebook. "You're still a little high today." He took the cuff off her arm and looked at her. "You are not going into the office tomorrow. Cassie can handle things for one day." He said as she made a move to argue. "Have you been going to your yoga class?"

"You do yoga?" Lois smiled.

"No." Lex said. "She's supposed to go to yoga but most times she skips class and sneaks off to a coffee shop."

"You're not supposed to drink caffeine when you're pregnant." Lois pointed out. "Even I know that."

"I don't drink it." Chloe argued. "I just sit there and smell it." She sighed longingly. "I can identify what's in someone's cup at fifty paces by now."

"Yoga is going to help calm you and keep your blood pressure down."

"But those women are so annoying." Chloe whined. "They're all stuck up, snooty, bitches."

"Chloe if yoga's gonna help you." Lois looked at her. "You need to go."

"They have designer yoga mats Lois." Chloe countered. "And they showed me pictures of their dogs last time, dressed up in clothes." She paused for dramatic effect. "With matching shoes."

"Ok, that's creepy and disturbing." Lois said. "So we find you another studio, and I'll go with you."

"You're going to come to prenatal yoga with me?" Chloe asked skeptically.

"You need to go Chloe." Lex stood up.

"Listen to him." Lois added.

Chloe looked between Lex and Lois and glared. "Ok, this is too weird, if this whole us making up thing is just going to be a way for you and Lex to gang up on me, I'm going to take back my hug."

"I just want what's best for the baby." Lex told her, laying a hand on her stomach and kissing her cheek.

"Fine." Chloe sighed. "I'll go to the stupid class, but Lois has to come with me. And I want to go someplace different."

"Deal." Lex nodded.

"Now go away, you reek of cream cheese." She shoved him away playfully and he took the hint, walking out of the room to give them girl time. He stopped at the end table, picked up the onesie Chloe had picked up earlier and looked over at Lois who was smiling.

"Cute." He said before setting it back down and walking out.

"The hats?" Chloe asked Lois and she jumped before turning around and continuing to dig through piles.

"You know I just wanted you to be happy." Lois said.

"I am happy." Chloe told her.

"You look happy." Lois turned around and smiled, holding up two of the smallest baseball caps known to man, both sporting Metropolis Sharks logos. "I couldn't resist."

* * *

"That class is evil." Lois groaned, walking out of Prenatal yoga with Chloe. "How many more months of this do we have?"

"Just four." Chloe said smiling. "It's actually quite refreshing now, you know since I've gotten used to it."

Lois glared at her and walked up to a coffee counter. "Large, black." She turned back to Chloe. "You're just in that annoying, everything is great, life is a musical pregnancy period." Lois looked down at Chloe's newly emerged baby bump and smiled slightly.

"Yeah, pretty much." Chloe smiled at her.

"Miss." The coffee vendor caught Lois' attention and she paid for her coffee then took the cup.

"Ok." Lois passed it to Chloe. "Sniff only."

Chloe grabbed the cup greedily and took off the lid, inhaling deep and long. "That's the stuff." She reluctantly put the lid back on and handed the cup to Lois as they walked down the street when she suddenly stopped. "Oh!" She grabbed her stomach and then snatched Lois hand.

"Hey crazy lady, I almost spilled my coffee." Lois said as Chloe placed put Lois' hand on her stomach.

"The baby kicked." Chloe smiled. "Wait." They stood there in the middle of the street with their hands on Chloe's stomach.

"I don't feel…oh my God." Lois' eyes went huge and she smiled at Chloe. "I felt that."

"So did I." Chloe laughed. "Wow, he's really awake today. Yoga must make him nimble." Chloe flinched again. "Ok, now he's kicking mommy's bladder. Quick, bathroom."

Lois nodded and grabbed Chloe's arm, pulling her into a small deli. "Bathroom."

"Through the back." The guy behind the counter said. "But it's for customers only."

"You want her to pee on your floor?" Lois asked and he motioned them through to the bathroom. "Good man."

They walked out of the bathroom and were headed for the door when Chloe suddenly stopped and turned around, staring intently at the deli counter. "What?" Lois asked.

"I just…if I don't have a pastrami sandwich right now, I'm going to die." Chloe told her.

"Meat?" Lois raised her eyebrows. "You actually want meat?"

"God yes." Chloe walked over to the counter and smiled. "I need a pastrami on rye, and instead of dressing could you put cream cheese, oh and maybe a little bit of chopped liver?" The guy behind the counter stared at her as if she were crazy. "Wait no, chopped liver on one side and do you have any chocolate sauce?"

"You want a pastrami with cream cheese, chopped liver, and chocolate sauce?" He asked.

"Yeah." Chloe smiled.

The guys just stood there staring at Chloe as if she was crazy and Lois stepped forward. "Pregnant woman, very hungry I'd get to fixing that sandwich or she just might eat your hand."

"Yes ma'am." The guy reached in and grabbed the pastrami and got to work.

Lois stared fascinated as Chloe attacked the sandwich. "What?" Chloe asked, her mouth full of food, when she saw the look on Lois face.

"Nothing, I'm just glad you got your appetite back." Lois said.

"You look glad." Chloe teased her.

Lois rolled her eyes then paused. "What's it taste like?"

"Heaven." Chloe smiled. "You want to try?" She held out the half of the sandwich with chopped liver and cream cheese.

"I'm just gonna take your word for it." Lois grimaced. "And maybe become a vegetarian."

* * *

Chloe heard the ringing and slapped her hand on the alarm clock beside her bed but it wouldn't stop. "Hello." Lex whisper groggily, it was the phone.

"No, don't do anything, I'll be right there." He sighed and she felt the bed lift slightly as he stood up and started to get dressed. Chloe rolled over, her eyes opened wide as she stretched. "Go back to bed. Just a thing at the plant." He leaned over and kissed her cheek and then bent down and kissed her fairly substantial belly. "I'll be back soon." He promised.

"Hey on your way back, could you stop at Marko's and get me a Philly Cheese Steak with extra peppers, oh and that bakery on 3rd and get me an apple fritter but not…have them make it fresh and no cinnamon. Watch them make it, cinnamon is gonna make me puke."

"Apple fritter no cinnamon and Philly Cheese extra peppers." Lex smiled. "Got it."

"Oh and…" She sat up. "Never mind."

"No I'll get it." He assured her.

"No it's ok, we've got it in the kitchen, all this talk of food is making me hungry." She smiled. "You think we've got any more of that Lobster Risotto from the other night?"

"Yeah there's a little left." Lex said. "You want me to heat it and bring it up?"

"I'm pregnant, not crippled, I can get it myself." She assured him as he helped her pull herself off the bed. "Besides I think I want it cold. Maybe add peanut butter and wasabi to it." He walked her down to the kitchen and left her to rummage in the fridge for her disgusting late night snack.

"Enjoy I'll be back." He kissed her cheek again and walked to the door. "I love you." He called after her and she froze with a spoonful of cold Lobster Risotto and peanut butter in her mouth and just nodded at him. He smiled slightly and walked out the back door.

She sat down and finished adding the wasabi before mixing it all together and sighed. She still wasn't used to that, to the "I love you". She didn't say it back, he didn't pressure her too, she wasn't ready and he knew it, he understood, but still she couldn't help but feel bad. She remembered the first time he did it.

"_You are an angel. Gimmie, gimmie, gimmie." Chloe sighed as Lex held out the two objects in his hands and Chloe sat up a little to take them. Lex settled himself down next to her on the floor and laid his head against her newly enlarged stomach, it seemed to swell almost overnight and he still couldn't get over it. _

"_You're mother is disgusting." Lex whispered to her belly. _

"_I'm not disgusting. He's the one who wants this." She reminded Lex, dipping the corndog in the bottle of apricot Jam and taking a big bite._

"_No, he wants specific nutrients." Lex pointed out her. "The way you interpret them happens to be a corn dog dipped in jelly, you are disgusting." She glared down at him and he smiled. "But beautiful, glowing even." He added on to the end as he turned his attention back to her stomach. He pulled the piece of paper out of his pocket again, as if to check and make sure it hadn't changed. "A boy." He said, staring at the ultrasound picture. _

"_Yep." Chloe nodded. "Still a boy."_

_Lex glared playfully up at her and she smiled. "You're happy?" _

"_I'd like to say it didn't matter but…" He looked down at the picture. "A boy? I'm happy." He kissed her stomach. "I'm happier than I think I've ever been." He said softly. "Thank you." _

"_What are you thanking me for?" Chloe asked him confused. "You put him in there." She reminded him. _

"_Chloe, I'm happy." He sat up and looked at her, his tone serious. "I'm not…I don't do happy. But now, because of you, I'm happy. You're giving me a son, do you know what that means to me?" _

"_Lex…" _

"_No." He shook off her protest. "I've never been good with…five years ago, when we were walking out of the courthouse, newly married, if you had told me that today we'd be happy and expecting our first child I would have had you locked up in Belle Reeve but I am happy. I happy about the baby, I'm happy about you, I'm happy about us." She smiled and kissed him softly before taking another bite of her corndog. "I love you Chloe." _

_She stopped chewing, she wasn't sure if she knew how to chew anymore, but she knew how to swallow and she did reflexively and then she choked. Lex clapped her on the back as she managed to swallow her food and she stared at him, his confession hanging in the air between them. "I don't expect you to say it back, definitely not now, maybe not ever, and I'm ok with that, but I mean it. I do love you and I know that's not at all what either of us expected when we started this, but it happened and I don't regret it." _

"_Ok." Chloe said after a while, not sure why or what it meant, was she giving him permission to love her? Was she accepting that he was telling the truth? Was she just acknowledging that she understood him? She didn't know but "ok" seemed to be good enough for Lex because he kissed her softly and laid his head back down on her stomach, talking softly to the baby. _

Chloe took another bite of the Risotto and sighed. She wasn't sure if she'd ever be able to say it back to him, and she knew that it wasn't fair but nothing about their situation had ever been fair, she wasn't going to start complaining about it now. She grabbed the bowl and walked to the living room, knowing that she wasn't going to be able to sleep until she got the cheese steak from Lex, or the fritter so she might as well watch a movie or something. Twenty minutes into the movie she heard a noise at the back of the house and paused the television. If she was very lucky Lex decided to grab her food first, anticipating the problem at the plant could take a while. "I'm in here." She called out to him and when he didn't respond she paused the movie, pulled herself up and walked down the hall. There were noises coming from his office so she headed in that direction and opened the door, her mouth salivating for the cheese steak and the fritter and wondering what they would taste like together when she froze.

It wasn't Lex in the office, it wasn't someone from the house or someone from the plant, it was someone familiar. "Bart." Chloe whispered, but he heard her, his head shooting up, his stance showing that he was ready to run, to disappear in a heartbeat, but he didn't. He was frozen in place at the sight of her. He was older now and he looked it, it had been five years since she'd seen him, since he showed up at the Daily Planet and accused her of murdering Oliver. From the look on his face, it was obvious whatever he'd been doing, it didn't involve watching the news or reading the paper.

"You're pregnant." He said. His hands hovering over Lex's keyboard. There was no hiding it, not anymore, at six months she was huge.

"Yeah." Chloe said with a whisper. "What are you…" She looked to the left when she heard another noise and saw Victor standing there, staring at her and it clicked. "There's no problem at the plant?" She asked closing her eyes.

"There is." Victor stepped further into the room, his eyes fixed on her stomach and she laid a hand over it protectively, which caused him to freeze in place. Hurt and confusion played on his features and Chloe didn't know why, was he upset that she was pregnant, pregnant with Lex's baby, upset that her first instinct was to protect it in his presence or upset that her instinct was to protect it at all. "We manufactured a problem to get him out of the house." He finally said.

"He doesn't keep anything on the main computer." Chloe said. "There's a backup hard drive in the safe."

"We got it thanks." Victor waved a small black box at her, not even wondering why she was helping them.

"How have you been?" She started to ask, a small smile on her face.

"You're having his baby?" Dinah's voice came from behind her and Chloe turned to face the angry woman.

"Dinah…" She sighed. "I can't…"

"He's doing it again." Victor told her. "33.1, experiments, meteor infected. Any of this sound familiar?"

"No, he stopped doing that." Chloe shook her head. "He stopped."

"He did." Bart acknowledged. "But this is Lex we're talking about; you had to know it couldn't last forever."

"She doesn't even care Bart, leave it." Victor scoffed.

"No, he can't, you don't understand, he can't do that anymore." Chloe was trying to convince herself.

"God you can't be that stupid." Dinah laughed at her. "What does that even mean? He can't? Ok, then we're mistaken, we didn't just blow up a lab that was doing experiments on people against their will."

"He…" Chloe grabbed the edge of the couch, suddenly overcome with a wave of dizziness.

"You know actually I can't believe you're that stupid. I have to imagine that you knew all about it and you're just lying to us, pretending to be upset, confused. I'd forgotten what a good actress you are." She glared at Chloe

"Dinah, back off, she doesn't look so good." Bart stepped up and Victor threw out a hand to stop him.

Chloe slid down the side of the couch to the floor and felt wet when she made it. She looked down at the puddle by her feet and took a deep breath. "My water broke." She panted out as an intense pain like she'd never felt before wracked her whole body. "I'm only six months…it's too soon." She managed to say between breaths.

"She needs help man." Bart said and Victor cut him off with a glare.

"Not our problem anymore." Victor said before walking to the door, stepping over the puddle around Chloe as he left.

"Bart." Chloe pleaded with him as another contraction hit her. "Something's wrong."

"Impulse." Dinah called from the hall and Bart looked at Chloe, on the floor, complete and unadulterated panic in her eyes. He looked down at her stomach, and then saw it, her wedding ring, her wedding ring that reminded him who she was married too and he looked away as he walked around her to get to the door.

A strangled sob escaped her, against her will as she tried to pull herself to the desk, to the phone, to call for help. It took her fifteen minutes to make it as far as the end table by the couch and she tried to pull herself up but all she managed to do was yank the lamp to the ground, shattering it as her vision got darker.

She didn't remember much after that, voices, worried, panicked, a soothing hand on her forehead, she mumbled something but for the life of her she didn't know what. Then she was being carried to an ambulance, driven to the hospital and then nothing. She woke up two days later to the sound of a machine beeping, she was still in the hospital. "Hey." A soft voice said to her left and she turned her head to see Lois sitting there. "You're awake."

"What's going on?" Chloe asked as her hand went to her stomach, only to feel nothing, it was flat and covered in bandages.

"You went into labor, but you weren't conscious enough to push so they had to do a c-section." Lois grabbed her hand.

"It was too soon." Chloe shook her head. "The baby…"

"He didn't make it." Lex said from the doorway.

"What do you mean?" Chloe sobbed.

"His lungs weren't strong enough yet, they tried everything they could but he didn't." Lois covered her mouth with her hand and turned away.

"Lex, tell me it's not true." Chloe begged him. "Tell me she's wrong…"

"I can't Chloe." He walked to the bed and took the hand that Lois had dropped. "I'm so sorry."

"I don't understand what happened." She shook her head. "I shouldn't have gone into labor."

"The doctor said you're blood pressure was really high, stress sometimes does that, it happens sometimes, it just…it happens sometimes." Lex shrugged as Chloe broke down and cried.

* * *

Present Day.

"I didn't know." Oliver called out to Chloe. She didn't look away from the headstone in front of her as she knelt on the ground.

"I know." She smiled slightly. "It's not your fault."

"Still…" He said lamely, taking a small step forward.

"No, I over reacted." Chloe shook her head.

"I really don't think you did." Oliver was beside her now and he sat down. "You lost a child Chloe."

She felt the tears fall and reached her hand out to trace the letters on the cold stone slab. "Julian Gabriel Luther" "He lived for twenty minutes." Chloe told Oliver proudly. "Lois said he was a fighter."

"He was your kid." Oliver grabbed her hand. "Of course he was a fighter."

"I was so mean to Bart." She sniffed and turned to Oliver. "It was just the first time I'd seen him since it happened and I guess, I mean I don't blame him, I never blamed him I just…I'm sorry."

"Please." A voice said from behind her and she turned slowly to see Bart standing there. "Please don't apologize." She stood up shakily and Oliver grabbed her arm to steady her as she turned to Bart. "I'll completely understand if you never want to see me again, but just listen please."

"I'm listening." Chloe whispered.

"I came back." Bart told her. "Victor and I got into a fight about…and I came back for you. I called 911 and I held your hand and you tried to tell me, even then you tried to tell me but I wouldn't listen but I came back. And that's not an excuse, I'm not looking for a thank you or even forgiveness, I just want you to know that I couldn't let you sit there in pain, even when I thought…I couldn't do that to you, so I came back."

"That was you?" Chloe asked confused. When the whole thing had happened there was so much pain, she couldn't remember a lot but later, much later she would get images, someone holding her, soothing her, talking to her to keep her calm, keep her awake.

"_Chloe!" Bart screamed from the doorway and ran into the room, sliding to a stop next to her on the floor. "Oh God." He swept the glass away from her with his hand and then grabbed her head and laid it gently in his lap. He took the phone from the table and dialed 911. "Yes, I've got an emergency, a pregnant woman, she's in labor, but she's early, only six months." Bart's voice was shaky but he kept going. "Her water broke and I think she's having contractions, but she's not completely conscious, she's in a lot of pain and…" He looked down and swallowed. "There's blood, there's a lot of blood." He stared at the red stain on her night shirt that was getting bigger and bigger. _

"_I'm so sorry." Chloe mumbled through her tears. _

"_No." Bart grabbed her hand and squeezed. "Don't apologize." _

"_I'm sorry for Oliver." She whispered. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen." _

"_Shh." Bart cried as he stroked her forehead. "Don't talk ok." _

"_There's a lot of blood." She said, her mouth dry. "There shouldn't be that much blood." _

"_They're gonna be here any second now Chloe." Bart told her. "Just hold on for me."_

"_I need to tell you what happened, in case…" _

"_No, no in case." Bart shook his head. "You are the strongest woman I know, stronger than Lois, stronger than Dinah. You have to hold on for me, there's no in case." _

"_Ok." Chloe nodded. "Ok." _

"_Good." Bart sighed in relief. "Chloe…" He turned his head and smiled. "They're here." He'd heard the door get thrown open and loud voices. "I have to go." He pulled his hand away from hers and laid her head gently on the ground. "Just hold on, a little while longer." He leaned over and kissed her forehead before super speeding away, just as the EMT's came in._

"That was you." Chloe sniffed, her tears drying up.

"That was me." He said. "And it doesn't make up for anything, not the way we treated you, not any of it." He shifted nervously. "The thing is, when you disappeared, I was so worried. I was more worried about you than Oliver, no offense."

"None taken." Oliver smiled.

"I scoured the globe for you for months, literally ran myself ragged. Then they gave up the search for Oliver, then you just show up out of nowhere, perfectly fine, not a care in the world and married to Lex Luther and I was hurt and I was angry and I said so many things that I couldn't take back but I said them, and they were out there and I was too proud to take them back and then three years go by. You can't exactly send some flowers with a card saying, "Sorry I accused you of murdering your best friend and betraying us, can we go get some coffee?" You know?"

"Yeah." Chloe smiled. "Hallmark's really lacking in that area."

"God, you must hate me." Bart sighed. "Everything that you were doing for us, everything that you sacrificed to keep us safe and we treated you like, we didn't deserve it, we don't deserve it and I am going to spend every waking minute of my life trying to make it up to you if you'll let me. I just can't have you hating me, I can't live with that."

"Bart." She smiled at him, tilted her head. "I don't hate you. I never hated you. I was mad at you and I was frustrated, and I missed you, but I never hated you."

"You missed me?" He asked hopefully. "Even after everything that I did and said?"

Chloe dropped Oliver's hand and walked up to Bart, he tensed, just for a second, expecting a slap, expecting anything but what she did. She grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him into a tight hug. "You were a part of my life, a big part of my life for a while and then one day you're not, of course I missed you."

He wrapped his arms around her back and buried his head in her shoulder. The most overwhelming sense of relief washed over him and suddenly everything was ok. Nothing was forgotten, he was still going to spend every waking moment of his life trying to make it up to her, but now as he was hugging her, he had hope that someday he'd actually be able to do it.

A few hours later, Chloe and Oliver were back at the Clock tower, emotionally drained, completely exhausted. They were sitting on the couch, she was leaned against his side, playing with the fingers on his left hand absentmindedly.

"Is that what happened?" He looked down at her. "You said something happened, to mess up your happy marriage with Lex. Was that it?"

"Yeah." Chloe nodded. "The baby was gone and it was so hard and I was so alone." She sighed. "I had Lois but it just wasn't the same."

"And Lex?"

"It hit him really hard." Chloe sighed. "He never said it but, he was sure it was his punishment, karma, payback for what he'd done before."

"I'm pretty sure that's now how it works." Oliver pointed out.

"Grief does crazy things to you." Chloe told him. "He wasn't taking it very well and I was taking it even worse and we started to grow apart and then, well then I caught him in bed with Leslie, my best friend."

Oliver pulled away and looked down at her. "He slept with your best friend, after…"

"Please." Chloe grabbed his arm. "I know you have this preconceived notion in your head about Lex, but it wasn't like that ok."

_Today was a better day. It wasn't a good day, Chloe wasn't at the point yet where she could envision a good day, the wound was too fresh, the hurt to new. It wasn't a good day but it was a better day, better than yesterday, better than the day before. She'd gotten up today. She ate breakfast and ten she went into town. Nothing big, she didn't go shopping or to the office, she just went to the park, took a walk, some fresh air. "Lex!" She called out when she walked back into the penthouse going through the mail. "We have an appointment with Dr. Levin later don't forget." She set the mail on the counter and frowned. She knew he was home, why wasn't he answering her. _

"_Lex?" She walked down the hall and opened the bedroom door. Immediately she closed it and turned around. _

"_Oh shit." Leslie's voice rang through the door and Chloe flinched as she walked to the kitchen and started a pot of coffee. She heard hushed voices and high pitched whispers and then Leslie was walking past her to the door. "Chloe, I'm so sorry, I don't know what happened…I never…." _

"_It's ok." Chloe shrugged. "I'm just surprised." She poured herself a cup of coffee._

"_Surprised?" Leslie said cautiously. _

"_I'm surprised that you haven't managed to get pregnant yet." Chloe looked up at her and glared. "What with all the men you're sleeping with." _

_  
"Chloe!" She said shocked. _

"_I know about Petra's husband, and I know about the pool guy in St. Martin, Lex was just the next obvious contender." She took a sip. "Although after so many men, and still no bun in the oven…" Chloe shrugged. "It might be time to see a specialist, it's possible your uterus is just too in hospitable for conception. Tough luck." _

_Leslie stared at her for a second before walking out of the penthouse. Five minutes later as Chloe got up to pour her second cup of coffee Lex walked in the room, he was calm and composed as he pulled a glass out of the cabinet and poured himself a cup of coffee. "I'm going to cancel the appointment with Dr. Levin." Chloe said, not looking at him. "Today just doesn't seem like a good therapy day." _

_Lex nodded and looked at her. "Are you mad at me?" _

"_Yes." She looked up and nodded. _

"_Furious?" He asked sipping his coffee. She nodded again. "Good." He said before turning around. _

"He wanted me angry, angry at him, angry at Leslie, he just wanted me angry." Chloe thought about it. "He wanted me angry because I was so sad, I was so depressed, he was afraid that I would do something stupid." Chloe explained.

"Try and hurt yourself again." Oliver whispered understanding.

"He realized later that it was the wrong way to do that, but he's Lex, that's what he knows and I can't fault him for it, not really." Chloe shrugged. "But the damage was done and nothing was same. He tried, he still tries, to get me back, to make it up to me. To be fair, he's been completely faithful since."

"How can you be sure about that?" Oliver asked her.

"Because I know Lex." Chloe sighed. "I know Lex probably better than he knows himself and that just makes everything harder sometimes."

"I see what you mean now about messy and complicated." Oliver let out a deep breath.

"Yeah." Chloe smiled up at him.

"What about 33.1?" Oliver asked suddenly. "Victor said he'd started up 33.1 again."

"Lionel did." Chloe said. "I wasn't as clever as I thought I was, my deal forbid Lex from working with 33.1 but nothing to prevent Lionel. Victor caught it early, he didn't even really have a chance to get it up and running before, well before your guys blew it to pieces. Lionel gave up as far as I know, it took too much time and energy to try and stay a step ahead of your team. So he bought some factories in Mexico or something." Chloe waved it off. "So you know everything now."

"I do." Oliver nodded.

"What…" she closed her mouth. "I should go, it's getting late." She stood up and grabbed her bag, trying to make it to the elevator without looking at him.

"Hey." He grabbed her arm and spun her around. "I told you before that nothing could change the way I felt about you and I meant that." He grabbed her chin and tilted her head up to look at him. "If anything I love you more." She smiled slightly. "You are so much stronger and braver that I could ever have been and you amaze me."

"I try." She said sarcastically.

He kissed her softly. "I love you."

"I love you too." Chloe whispered.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" He asked hopefully.

"I don't know, I'll get a message to you." She tapped his chest lightly before walking to the elevator. "Don't forget."

"Go out the back way." He nodded at her and she smiled as the elevator doors closed.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Another short chapter but I wanted to get it posted.

* * *

Now Chloe constantly walked around with a feeling in the pit of her stomach. It was sort of an anxious, excited fear. There was the tiny butterflies that kept her from concentrating until she finally saw Oliver. There was the anxious feeling she had ever time she knew it was time for them to part, wondering when they could both get away again to see each other. Then there was the fear, the fear that Lex would find out, the fear that Lionel would find out, the fear that Oliver would get tired of having her for two hours on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Lying to Lex was easier than Chloe thought it would be. He was working a lot lately and she was working a lot, their time together already short so elaborate excuses were rarely if ever used to sneak off to see Oliver. Most of their meetings were at the Clock tower, after Chloe finished work for the day. Then one day she got a text from Oliver telling her to meet him at a strange address. Chloe was confused, it looked like a warehouse down at the docks and she couldn't figure out why Oliver would want to meet there, but she called Lex anyway, told him she was working late and then set off when all the other workers left. By the time she got to the docks, the sun was setting and she was starting to have second thoughts about agreeing to the whole thing.

"Pretty ladies shouldn't walk alone at night." A voice said behind her. "The streets aren't safe."

"I can take care of myself thanks." Chloe smiled and turned around to see Oliver in his Green Arrow uniform behind her. "But it doesn't help to have an escort I guess.

"It would be my pleasure." He pushed his hood back and took off the glasses, offering Chloe his arm.

"So what are we doing out here?" Chloe asked as he led her through a maze of warehouses.

"I thought a change of scenery might be nice." Oliver stopped and opened the side door of one of the warehouses and moved to let Chloe walk in. "Maybe catch up with some old friends."

Chloe paused in the doorway and stared straight ahead. They were all there, Victor, AC, Dinah, and Bart, staring at the door, obviously waiting for her. "Hi." She said lamely as Oliver gently shoved her further in the room.

"Hey Chloe." Bart stepped forward and hugged her while the others weren't really sure what to do. Victor couldn't look at her. Dinah looked like she wanted to be anywhere else but where she was and AC was studying her intently, like he was trying to figure something out.

"Oliver, what's going on?" Chloe asked him over her shoulder.

"This is the temporary headquarters for the JLA. I thought it was time for you guys to get over this whole thing."

"Get over it?" Chloe turned to him, surprised that he was acting like what went on between them was as simple as a disagreement over the better sports team.

"Yeah, get over it." Oliver said pointedly to her. "Deal with it, put it behind you, move on. Start over."

"What if it's too late to start over?" AC spoke up, addressing his question to Chloe and not Oliver.

She smiled at him. "It's never too late to start over." He smiled back and nodded.

"Wow, this is going great." Oliver said. "Better than I expected. No one's thrown anything or broken anything so…" He clapped his hands together. "Maybe this should be a one on one thing." He looked at the group. "Bart, Victor, Dinah, why don't you come into the office and look at the thing, about the place."

"Right." Bart said. "The thing." He helped Oliver herd the others out of the main room and that left AC and Chloe standing there staring at each other. She took off her coat and looked around trying to find a place to put them. The room containing mainly carpentry supplies, a lot of power tools and some sheets of wood so she just held them.

"Why did you guys leave me?" AC asked and Chloe was taken by surprise.

"Oh, I…" She seemed to draw a blank.

"On the boat that night, when I got trapped, you guys were gonna leave me there." AC said.

"Oliver said we needed to get back up, that we couldn't risk it." Chloe said. "We would have come back for you, you know that right?"

"Yeah." AC nodded. "No I know that I just…" He sighed and moved his weight from foot to foot and looked up at her. "I've spent the past nine years wondering what would have happened if I hadn't been trapped."

Chloe got it then, understood. "Oh God, don't do that." She shook her head and walked closer to him. "You can't do that you'll drive yourself crazy."

"If I hadn't been trapped you and Oliver wouldn't have been alone on the deck."

"If you had been up with us on the deck, Lionel just would have shot you too. That I can guarantee." Chloe sighed. "I think I've probably been through every what if scenario in the book. "What if Victor and Bart hadn't been busy with that other project, they would have been there instead of me. What if I'd never figured out Oliver's identity? What if Principal Johnston assigned Mark Lawson to give me a tour in the eighth grade instead of Clark, there are more what if's, more possibilities, but this is what happened and it's not going to change."

"So what does that mean?"

"That means we start from here." Chloe told him. "We start from this point on."

"We just pretend the past nine years didn't happen?" AC asked.

"We can't do that." Chloe shook her head. "Those years made me who I am today, I'm sure they've changed you too and I want to hear about that, I want to know all about what you've been doing, what's new but we just don't let it define our relationship."

"We can do that?" AC asked hopefully.

"If we want to?" Chloe thought about it. "I think we can."

"I think I'd like that." AC blushed.

"So would I." Chloe said.

"So do we hug now?" AC looked around the room.

"We weren't ever really the hugging kind were we?" Chloe wrinkled her nose.

"I think we could make an exception." AC offered and Chloe smiled, hugging him briefly, a little awkwardly but it was something.

AC walked into the office and sent out the next person in line for round two of apologies.

* * *

Dinah walked out, that same expression on her face, annoyance mixed with anxiety. She stood in front of Chloe, her hands crossed over her chest defensively. "We were never friends."

"We weren't." Chloe acknowledged. Their previous relationship was always more of a common acceptance that the other person was there and they weren't going anywhere so they should probably make the best of it and just keep their heads down.

"We were probably never going to be friends, no matter what happened." Dinah pointed out.

"Probably not." Chloe agreed, she could never picture shopping with Dinah, eating lunch with her, just hanging out with her.

"So we don't need to have a whole big thing here."

"We don't." Chloe said.

"Great." Dinah lowered her arms. "What we did to you was wrong. There's no excuse for it, we were mad, we were surprised, and to be perfectly honest, we didn't know if it was real." Chloe looked at her confused. "I mean we thought you weren't on our side anymore, for all we knew it was a fake out, to buy time until security got there, or Lex even. It was wrong, we were wrong."

Chloe stood there for a second and squinted at Dinah. "Was that…was that an apology?" Dinah nodded. "Ok, accepted."

"Good." Dinah nodded and screamed in the room to Oliver and the guys. "I gotta go, I don't have time to sit around all day with my thumbs up my butt like you guys, I do have a real job."

"Did you two even talk?" Oliver asked annoyed.

"We laughed, we cried, we apologized, we're BFF"s." Dinah said and Oliver glared at her.

"We're good." Chloe assured him.

"Fine." Oliver said to Dinah, basically dismissing her.

Chloe took a deep breath when Victor walked out and laid her purse and coat on the floor, this one wasn't going to be as easy as the others. Vic was probably, next to Oliver, the person she was closest to in the group. They had the most in common; they spent the most time together, working on all the technical stuff that ran the team. Chloe thought about all the times they'd stayed up until four in the morning, pretending to be doing work for Oliver when in reality they were secretly playing around on the computer. Sometimes they were watching British television, artfully stolen from England by redirecting two or three Queen Industries satellites because they both agreed that the Brits just did comedy better than Americans.

Chloe was the first person Victor called after Katherine came back to him, and also the first person he called when she left again. It was Victor, not Lois that Chloe called when Jimmy finally just couldn't take the secrets and the lies anymore. He brought tequila and rocky road ice cream and made her laugh for the first time in three days.

"Hey." Chloe took a step forward.

"Hey." Victor nodded at her.

They stood there staring at each other for a minute before Chloe raised her eyebrows. "So."

"Yeah." He nodded. There was another minute of silence and then Chloe coughed. "I can't believe you would do that to us." Victor said.

"You can't believe I would…" Chloe crossed her arms over her chest. "What the hell does that mean? On what planet is that an apology?"

"I'm not apologizing." Victor scoffed.

"Obviously." Chloe glared.

"I'm not apologizing until you apologize."

"What are we twelve?" She screamed at him. "And what exactly is it that I'm apologizing to you for?"

"Oh I don't know." Victor sighed. "Maybe about the fact that you didn't trust us enough, didn't trust me enough to come to me with this."

"I didn't trust you enough?" Chloe threw her arms in the air and turned around. "This coming from the man who branded me a Judas without even talking to me, who decided everything based on a newspaper article."

"It never would have even gotten that far if you hadn't just come to me in the first place, when Lionel first approached you."

"I was trying to protect you." Chloe screamed.

"I'm a grown man Chloe I don't need protecting." He yelled back at her. "I needed you."

"Yeah well I needed you." Chloe growled at him.

* * *

"I think they're screaming at each other." Bart said looking through the small window in the door.

"Bart, stop." AC slapped him and he turned back to the table where Oliver had building plans laid out.

"Yelling?" Oliver looked up from the table and moved to the window.

"Guys isn't this something private that Chloe and Victor need to work through, alone?"

"Holy crap." Bart jumped. "Did she just throw that circular saw at him?"

"What?" AC ran to the door and fought Bart for space at the window. "Was it turned on?"

Bart and Oliver turned to AC. "Dude she's angry not crazy."

* * *

Forty Five Minutes Later…

"I told you they wouldn't notice if I ran out real quick and got food." Bart dropped the bags on the counter and passed AC a cup of French fries.

"What were they yelling about when you came in?" Oliver asked reaching for his drink.

"Something about a hard drive." Bart shrugged grabbing a burger and taking a bite.

"Oh My God." AC stood up and walked to the window. "That was fifteen years ago."

"What?" Oliver stole one of his fries and sat up straighter.

"Chloe was creating this program for us. She explained it to me but it was all technical so I didn't really pay attention but it was supposed to sort through all of our data and find connections, cross referencing or something, anyway, she'd worked on this thing for months and was almost finished and then Victor accidentally erased her hard drive."

"I remember that." Bart smiled. "He refused to apologize for it and they didn't talk for three days."

"I guess they had quite a lot to work through." Oliver sighed taking another fry.

* * *

"Just because it was an accident doesn't mean you didn't have to apologize." Chloe screamed.

"I didn't do it on purpose." Victor said. "I'm not apologizing."

"You are so unbelievably stubborn." Chloe snapped at him.

"I'm stubborn?" He laughed. "I'm stubborn. I believe it was you who walked around in excruciating pain for two weeks with a broken rib because you refused to go to the doctor, you insisted you were ok."

"That's not even the same thing." Chloe argued.

"It's exactly the same thing." Victor told her.

* * *

One hour later

AC tossed the pencil in the air and smiled as it suck in the ceiling. "That's five for me and two for you." He said to Bart, handing him a pencil.

"Wait." Bart pointed up and then smiled as the pencil dropped from the ceiling and hit Oliver in the head.

"You throw one more pencil, I'll kill you." Oliver turned around and glared at them.

"You've been grumpy for the past twenty minutes." Bart sat back down.

"I have to pee." Oliver told him.

"So go." AC nodded to the door.

"I can't go out there now." He sat up. "They're talking about the baby."

AC hung his head and Oliver nodded. "Here." Bart called out to him and Oliver turned to see Bart holding out his cup from earlier. Oliver just glared.

* * *

"You just…you just walked away." Chloe cried, tears streaming down her face.

"I know." Victor closed his eyes.

"I was bleeding and in pain." She wiped her eyes.

"And every time I close my eyes I see myself do that. Every time I close my eyes I wish that the ending would change. I wish that I was the one who came back instead of Bart, that I did something, did everything differently. Every time I close my eyes." He told her, wiping away his own tears.

"When the stick turned pink." She looked over at him. "You were the first person I wanted to call. When I got the first ultrasound, when I found out it was a boy…you are my first call, always. Even after you walked away, left me there, when I was in the hospital and they asked me if I wanted to talk to someone, I wanted to talk to you. You were my first call."

* * *

Thirty minutes later.

"Ok, fine, give me the cup." Oliver turned to Bart.

"Uhhh." Bart smiled sheepishly and held up the cup, now full of holes with five pencils sticking out of the sides. "Not sure how well it's gonna work now."

"Anywhere near finished?" Oliver asked AC who was looking out the window.

"No, I don't think so. They're back on the hard drive thing." AC sighed.

"Whatever you do, don't think about waterfalls or mountain streams." Bart joked. "Or running faucets."

"Bart." Oliver snapped.

"Carp." He sat down. "Now I have to pee."

* * *

"Ok – you didn't mean for it to happen, I get that. Which means you were sorry it happened." Chloe offered.

"Yes, but it wasn't my fault." Victor said for the fifteenth time. "People apologize because they want forgiveness."

"People apologize because they're sorry, regardless of blame, they apologize because they feel badly about something." Chloe countered.

"No." Victor turned to face her and screamed. "People apologize be forgiven, to be absolved and I don't want forgiveness. I don't want absolution, I don't deserve it."

Chloe realized suddenly they weren't talking about the hard drive anymore. "Well that's too bad. You don't have to apologize to be forgiven, so I forgive you anyway. There it's done, you're forgiven." Chloe blew out a breath and collapsed against a wall and slid down until she was on the floor.

Victor just stared at her and did the same. He leaned his head against the wall. "How can you forgive me?' He asked pained. "I killed your baby."

Chloe closed her eyes. "No you didn't."

"Chloe I was there…" He tried to tell her.

"If I could have blamed you I would have. Trust me, I'm really not this magnanimous. If I could have blamed you I would have. It was my fault." She turned to him. "My contractions started earlier that morning, I'd been having them all day." Victor furrowed his brow and looked at her. "For the past couple of months I'd been having Braxton Hicks, it's false labor, but they feel real. Because of my blood pressure Lex made me go to the doctor every time so I didn't tell him, I was tired of the doctor, I was tired of wasting three hours so someone could tell me they were fake. It was my fault, you guys just happened to be there when my water broke."

Victor turned away from her and looked straight ahead. Neither one of them said anything for a few minutes. "I'm sorry." Victor whispered.

Chloe smiled. "I'm sorry too."

"I'm sorry for everything." Victor added and then turned to her. "Everything except the hard drive." Chloe slapped his shoulder. "Should we let them out of their misery?"

"Let them stew a bit. Oliver has to pee and Bart's probably climbing the walls." Chloe shrugged.

"How exactly do you know Oliver has to pee?" He turned to her.

"He has to pee everyday at nine." Chloe laughed. "You could literally set your watch by him." Victor smiled then laughed and then they were both laughing.

"So." Victor said. "Have you tried out the new Mac operating system?"

"We just had it installed in the office, amazing isn't it?" Chloe's face lit up.

"Please, it's heaven in binary." Victor agreed. "I've been thinking of using it as a base in my next upgrade."

"Cool." Chloe nodded her approval.

* * *

Twenty minutes…

"That's it." Oliver stood up. "If they haven't made up by now, I don't care."

He threw open the door and saw Victor and Chloe laughing on the floor, falling on top of each other. "So she thinks I'm trying to steal it. I mean this is the absolute ugliest hat I've ever seen in my life, it's like three feet high and there are small stuffed animals on it, and I don't mean like teddy bear stuffed animals, I mean like animals that used to be alive and are now stuffed. But she won't listen and the fire keeps getting higher and higher."

"No way." Victor laughed.

"So finally Lois grabs the ice bucket from the next table and dumps it on her head." Chloe smiled. "And her husband is just sitting there, staring in shock, then he smiles and looks at Lois and says. "I always hated that hat."."

"So." Oliver looked between the two of them as they collapsed into more laughter. "You guys are…"

"We're fine." Victor stood up and then pulled Chloe up.

"We're better than fine." Chloe added. "But you should probably go to the bathroom.

Oliver jumped, as if he'd forgotten and hurried out of the room, Bart hot on his heels as Chloe and Victor collapsed into laughter again.

* * *

The longer and longer the affair went on, the harder it was to pretend like it wasn't happening. She had to catch herself with her friends, almost saying "Oliver and I" a few times instead of "Lex and I". It was even harder when Chloe went out to parties or fundraisers because he was always there and in her mind seeing Oliver meant touching Oliver, kissing Oliver. But in public, she was on Lex's arm and Oliver was flirting with models by the champagne fountain.

Oliver nodded, pretending to listen to something that Rachel was saying. Was her name Rachel? Maybe it was Renee, it didn't matter, he didn't care. What he cared about what on the other side of the room, standing there looking more than edible in her skin tight gown with Lex's arm around her waist. She laughed at something he said and then he looked at his watch, squeezed her arm and kissed her on the cheek before walking out of the party. Slowly all the people that were around her started to walk off to the dance floor.

"Ladies, excuse me." Oliver nodded at them, interrupting the story and walking toward Chloe who was watching everyone else dance with a smile on her face. "Ms. Luther."

"Mr. Queen." Chloe smiled at him.

"I couldn't help but notice that you are currently without a partner."

"Lex had to go take care of some work." Chloe set her glass down on the table.

"Well, since you're alone, and I'm alone, and we seem to be the only ones not dancing, I was hoping you would do me the honor." He held out his hand.

"One dance." Chloe smiled before nodding and taking it. He led her out to the dance floor, passing by the band and whispering something to the band leader before taking her out to the floor.

"What did you ask him?" Chloe looked behind her to see him relaying a message to the rest of the band.

"Just a request." Oliver pulled her against him and they started dancing to the music.

Just as they were getting started the song ended and Chloe turned to walk away but Oliver held her hand tight and pulled her back. "That was not a dance, that was a warm up." Oliver protested and she laughed and let him pull her to the center of the floor.

"_Have you met Miss Jones?" _

"I haven't seen you in a week and a half." Oliver mumbled against her temple as they danced to the song.

"You're the one who went out of town." Chloe reminded him, melting into his embrace.

"_Someone said as we shook hands"_

"Right that was stupid, I won't do that again." His hand sprawled on her back and she shivered.

"Oliver we can't do this here." She warned him.

"_She was just Miss Jones to me"_

"I know." Oliver groaned. "So, what was so funny?"

Chloe turned to him startled at the tone in his voice and smirked. "How's Rebecca?" She countered with and nodded in the direction of the models. Oliver just smiled and then spun her out and pulled her back. She smiled and laughed.

"_And then I said Miss Jones"_

"Sorry." Oliver leaned his forehead against hers. "Sorry, I'm just cranky, I went too long without seeing you."

"_You're a girl who understands"_

"I know." Chloe sighed against him.

"_I'm a man who must be free"_

"And one dance isn't going to do any good." He told her.

"_And all at once I lost my breath"_

"Tomorrow?" She asked him.

"_And all at once was scared to death"_

"One hour tomorrow isn't going to do any good either." He looked at her.

"_And all at once I owned the earth and sky"_

"Oliver." Chloe pulled away and sighed. "I can't have this conversation, not now, not here."

"_And now I've met Miss Jones"_

"You never want to have this conversation Chloe." He sighed. "I need more."

"_And we'll keep on meeting till we die"_

"This weekend." Chloe finally said. "Lex is going to be out of town until Monday." She looked up at him. "How about this weekend?"

"_Miss Jones and I"_

"The whole weekend?" He raised his eyebrows and she nodded. "You'll spend the whole weekend with me? Nights and all?"

"_Miss Jones and I"_

"The whole weekend." Chloe promised.

"_Miss Jones and I"_

"Deal." Oliver smiled. "I really want to kiss you right now." He whispered as the song ended.

"Me too." Chloe smiled. "This weekend."

"Thanks for the dance." Oliver pulled away from her and kissed her hand.

Lois glared, trying to figure out who to talk to first. She'd seen it, everyone had seen it. If you glanced over casually you could say they were dancing. If you even looked at them, just for a minute, you knew it was much more than that. She saw Oliver become engulfed in a crowd of people and then turned to watch Chloe settle in at her table, alone.

Lois grabbed a glass of champagne from a passing waiter and headed for her. She sat down but didn't look at her, she just stared straight ahead. "Do you know what you're doing?"

Chloe was silent for a minute and then swallowed. "How do you know what I'm doing?"

"Please." Lois scoffed. "You were practically having sex on the dance floor."

"We were barely touching." Chloe protested.

Lois snorted. "So, do you know what you're doing?"

"No." Chloe admitted.

"You better figure it out." Lois stood up and walked away without saying anything else.

Chloe sighed and laid her head down on the table.

Lois stalked purposefully toward Oliver and grabbed him by the arm. "I'm not going to make a scene, not here, but you and I are going to have words and you're words better be phenomenal or I swear to God Queen, I'm going to take one of your own arrows and…well I'm really mad right now so I can't think of anything specifically horrifying at the moment but I've got a good imagination, between now and tomorrow, I'll have a list." Oliver just nodded at her as she smiled and walked off.

* * *

Oliver spent the morning unable to concentrate on any work, waiting for Lois to walk through the door with her list and one of his arrows. By the time his secretary announced Ms. Lane from the Daily Planet he was wound so tight he practically jumped out of his seat when she came in. "Lois."

"Oliver." She sighed plopping down in his chair. "Relax, I'm not angry anymore, I'm too tired to be angry."

"Bad day?"

"You could say that.." Lois sighed. "I was up for a Pulitzer." She looked over at his bar and Oliver raised an eyebrow before fixing her a drink. "I didn't get it." He passed her the drink and she took a sip.

"I'm sorry." He apologized.

"Don't be, it's a good thing for you." She set her empty glass on his desk and smiled. "So, you're sleeping with my cousin?"

"We were that obvious?"

"Contrary to what the Pulitzer committee believes, I'm a damn good reporter." Lois glared.

"I know that Lois." He sighed.

"I asked you to save her." Lois leaned forward. "How is a quickie in a janitors closet while her husbands in the next room, saving her?"

"It's a processes."

"Oh a process." Lois leaned back. "I see, do we graduate from janitors closets to bathroom stalls?"

"I meant the saving her was a process." Oliver said. "We did not have a quickie in the janitor's closet."

"So the sleeping with her, is that just gravy?" Lois asked.

"It's love." Oliver said.

"Ok." Lois sighed for a second. "I get that you and Chloe have this long lost love thing going on Oliver I really do, but she's married."

"I know." Oliver sighed.

"To Lex Luther." Lois reminded him. "Lex Luther, the man who would ruin someone's life for fun, imagine what he'd do for sleeping with his wife?" She glared. "What he'd do to Chloe."

"He wouldn't hurt Chloe." Oliver said shaking his head. "Look you were right." Oliver told her. "She needs saving, but honestly I'm not sure how to do it. So in the mean time, I'm going to do what I can do for her, I'm going to make her happy."

"By stealing away for clandestine meetings?" Lois asked. "Spending a couple of hours with her every two days and then watching her go back to her husband at night?" She sighed. "Oliver I love my cousin, I really do, and I want her to be happy more than anything in the world, but is that making you happy?"

"I'll take what I can get." Oliver said.

"What if it's not enough?" Lois just shook her head and stood up. "I have to go."

Oliver stared at the door for a while after Lois was gone, he couldn't get annoyed with her because he'd been thinking the same thing. He'd been patient and he'd be patient. He wasn't lying when he said he'd take what he could get, but he wanted more, he'd always want more. He just hoped that he'd never get to the point where it wasn't enough. He checked the clock and stood up, it was time to meet Chloe, this time they'd have the whole weekend. Maybe this would be enough.

* * *

I have to say, I'm really surprised at how strongly you all reacted to Victor and Dinah. Don't get me wrong, what they did was horrible, but you've got no room for forgiveness, well then you probably didn't like this chapter. For those of you who are undoubtably waiting to review and tell me that there is no way Chloe would ever forgive them, especially not that easily, remember that she's had three years to deal with the situation, think about it, processes it. She's able to look at it logically and realize that it doesn't pay to stay angry forever. I couldn't let it go, I couldn't just end the story without bringing it up again and Chloe definitly does not seem like the revenge seeking, purposfully hurting someone type of girl to me so the only logical way to do it was to have her work through it and eventually forgive them. (Maybe I didn't really have her work through much wtih Dinah but at the same time, I didn't really have her forgive Dinah did I?).

Granted no matter what I say here you're going to get angry about it and send me mean reviews so I'll jsut have to deal wtih that. Again, sorry it was so short but I'm really having trouble with the next part, it's going to be very Chlollie heavy and there's going to be drama, and possibly the return of Clark. I'm sorry to say that there are probably only two more chapters left until the end, maybe three if i get carried away with the long weekend of Chloe Oliver fun, which I might so keep the reviews coming, even if they are mean, please don't be mean.


	9. Chapter 9

* * *

"So what are your plans for the weekend?" Lex asked Chloe as he closed his briefcase.

"Oh, they're very exciting." She turned around in the couch to face him. "I was thinking with you gone, I might give the staff the weekend off, check myself into the Spa at the Ritz."

"Fun." Lex walked over and kissed her softly. "Give me a call if you need me."

"Sure thing." Chloe nodded standing up to walk him to the door.

"I'll be back late Monday." He checked his watch. "Probably won't make diner."

"But Mondays are Italian night." Chloe reminded him. "Your favorite." He raised an eyebrow. "Ok, my favorite." She amended.

"It can still be Italian night without me." He opened the car door.

"No." Chloe sighed. She usually didn't make the chef cook if it was just here at the house. "Maybe I'll order in some Italian."

"Sounds like a plan." Lex smiled and climbed in the car before driving away. Chloe stood in the driveway until his car was gone around the corner and then went back inside. She sent the staff home, packed a quick bag and reserved a room at the Ritz, just to cover her tracks. She was almost out the door when Lois walked in the house with take out and some movies.

"Hey." She smiled. "I knew Lex was out of town this weekend so I thought I'd keep you company."

Chloe looked at Lois sheepishly. "Actually I already have plans." Chloe looked down at her overnight bag.

"Ok." Lois set the take out on the table. "Let me rephrase. I knew that Lex was going out of town this weekend and I figured you'd do something stupid like go see Oliver so I'm here to keep you company."

"Lois." Chloe sighed. "We need this weekend ok. Just to spend a little more time together without worrying about what time I need to get home. Can you understand that?"

"No." Lois shook her head. "Because this weekend won't be enough. I just, I really don't think you've thought about this enough, about what you're doing."

"I know what I'm doing." Chloe told her.

"You do?" Lois looked at her surprised. "And what happens when Oliver wants another weekend? What happens when Oliver wants a week? How are you going to do that?"

"I don't want to worry about that now; I just want to focus on this weekend." Chloe pleaded with her cousin.

"How is this fair Chloe?" She asked seriously. "How is it fair that he gets to have you and then loose you? How is it fair that you show up to parties and events with your husband and he can't even bring a date because he's so in love with you? How is it fair to you to have to split your time between the two of them?"

"I can't think about that right now."

"You don't want to think about that right now, but you need to." Lois told her. "Look, I'm no fan of Lex's but it's not fair to him either and like it or not you're in this marriage. Maybe…maybe it's time to let him go, let Oliver go. Let him live a life where he doesn't have to hide, let yourself live a life where you don't have to sneak around and lie."

Chloe looked at her for a second. "I'm leaving." She picked up her bag calmly. "You're more than welcome to stay here and finish your diner, lock up when you leave." Chloe walked out of the room and Lois sighed.

* * *

Her stomach was doing flip flops by the time Chloe walked out of the elevator at the Clock Tower. Everyone was gone, the whole place was dark and Chloe walked in, the enormity of what she was about to do hitting her suddenly, Lois' words ringing in her ears, and she panicked. "You're here." Oliver's voice called out from the catwalk and her fears and panic drifted away at the sight of his face. "Come up."

She nodded dropping her bag and climbing to stairs, only to stop on the top step at the sight in front of her. Subtly lit by candles, the clockwork providing the perfect backdrop, Oliver had set up a small table for two, dinner by candle light. "You cooked?" She pulled off her jacket and he held out her seat for her.

"No." He smiled sheepishly. "Take out but I set up the table."

"It's perfect." She smiled as he sat himself across from her. "Thank you."

"I figured we might as well do this properly." He shrugged and laid his hand on the table, palm facing up and Chloe didn't even hesitate before sliding her own hand in his. It was a natural movement, not forced, no thinking involved. They ate slowly, savoring every moment, smiling shyly at each other like two people on a first date; they even played footsie under the table. They were like a normal couple.

Chloe started to clear up when they'd finished eating but Oliver grabbed her waist. "Ignore it, we'll get them later." He whispered as he pulled her close and turned on some music. "Now that we're alone, I want a real dance with you."

"Can't say no to that." Chloe smiled, settling her head in below his chin, her ear pressed against his chest as they swayed slowly to the music. It was perfect, it was amazing and it felt so right.

* * *

"Chloe?" Oliver asked later as he rubbed her back and she mumbled. "Are you awake?"

"Yeah." She mumbled into his chest.

"You're lying." Oliver said.

She lifted her head up and glared at him. "You do what we just did and then try and be awake."

"I did do what we just did." Oliver smiled. "Anyway, I want to talk to you about something important and I don't want to piss you off."

Chloe stared at him then sat up and crawled out of the bed. Oliver watched her confused as she picked something up and walked out of the room. He sat up straighter as he heard noises outside and was about to go after her when she appeared in the doorway wearing nothing but his shirt holding two cups of coffee. She walked over to the bed, handed him a cup and then sat down, facing him as she sipped hers.

"Ok." Chloe looked up at him cautiously. "Go for it."

"You've talked to the guys, and Dinah. You've made your peace with them."

"Yeah." Chloe nodded. "And?"

"There's still someone you need to talk to don't you think?" He asked.

"You're talking about Clark?" Chloe pulled away from him.

"I'm talking about Clark." Oliver nodded.

"Wow." Chloe sat up straighter and sighed. "I can't."

"You didn't think you could talk to Victor, you didn't think you'd ever be able to be friends with him again but you guys are good, you're more than good." Oliver pointed out to her.

"It's different with Clark." Chloe said. "So much different."

"How?" Oliver asked her.

"Because, I do blame him." Oliver looked at her startled. "And it's not fair and it's not logical but damn it I blame him."

"Because Lionel used you just to get to him?" Oliver asked.

"Yes." Chloe sighed. "God it makes me sound like such a bitch. I blame him but at the same time, I don't want him to blame himself and I know he will and it's not fair." Oliver seemed confused. "I know it doesn't make any sense. I don't want him to blame himself, but I want to blame him."

"You're right, that doesn't make any sense." Oliver shook his head.

"And I'm scared of what he thinks of me." Chloe whispered.

"Bart told him." Oliver let her know, as if that would make it better. "Bart told him what happened, what Lionel did, what you did for him."

"Exactly. And he's going to blame himself for the past nine years of his life. Clark always had a hard time understanding things, understanding his role in things. He blames himself for his fathers death, for what happened to Lana, for what happened to Patricia Swann. He hates it that people get hurt to protect him, that people die to protect him. The whole reason Lionel did what he did, why he forced me to marry Lex was to get Clark off his path, away from his destiny. It'll be even worse now. He'll be upset that he didn't stop it, upset that he didn't save me, upset because this never would have happened if he'd never met me. At the same time I blame myself, I blame myself for letting him down, for being the reason that he betrayed his destiny, for being the reason he strayed from the path."

"Ok, both of you need to get over yourselves." Oliver laughed at her and Chloe glared, she didn't find it very funny. "I mean you are responsible for your decisions, no one else. Clark chose his life and you chose yours, I'm not saying they were easy choices, I'm not saying they were the right choices but they were your choices. You've been telling me and Bart and AC and Victor that we just needed to start over, not forget about the past, but change the future." Chloe sighed upset because he was right. "You know Clark isn't going to come to you. You're going to have to make the first move."

"I know." Chloe sighed. "You're right, but for now, for this weekend, can it just be about us?"

"Yes." Oliver said smiling as he took her coffee cup from her and set it on the counter. "Definitely."

* * *

Waking up to Chloe's body, warm and pressed up against him, was everything Oliver thought it would be. It felt peaceful, it felt relaxing, it just felt right. He lost track of the amount of time he sat there, just watching her sleep until she called him on it. "I can't decide if this is really sweet or really creepy." She said with her eyes closed and a smile creeping on her face.

"It's really sweet." Oliver told her.

"Says you." Chloe joked with her eyes still closed.

"Are you going to open your eyes any time soon?" He laughed.

"No." She shook her head.

"Why?" He asked.

"Because this is it. The moment of truth." Chloe told him. "This is the first morning after, the first time we'll see each other first thing in the morning."

"That's a lot of firsts." Oliver joked. "You do know with your eyes closed, I can still see you." Oliver pointed out.

"Oh, right." Chloe opened her eyes sheepishly.

"Hello." Oliver said.

"Hello." She smiled at him. He leaned forward and she turned her head. "What now?"

"Morning breath." She mumbled into the pillow.

"I don't care." Oliver said.

"I do." She mumbled. "Just give me a second." She turned away from him and climbed out of bed to go to the bathroom. Oliver sat up in bed and smiled, watching the door as Chloe walked out smiling, her hair combed and her face washed.

"Minty Fresh." She jumped on the bed giving Oliver a big kiss. "Morning."

"Morning." Oliver smiled at her. "You thinking about breakfast?"

"No." She kissed him. "I'm definitely not thinking about breakfast." She kissed him again.

"Oh." Oliver grabbed her and rolled her over on the bed so he was on top and she laughed as he tickled her a little before standing up. "Well too bad because we're having breakfast." Chloe groaned. "I want to spend the day with you and I don't just mean in bed."

"Can we have breakfast in bed?" Chloe wiggled her eyebrows.

"No. We'll eat a the table like normal civilized people, read the paper and then…" Oliver thought for a minute.

"Come back to bed?" Chloe offered and Oliver sighed. "Ok, ok." She climbed out of bed. "We'll eat at the table, we'll read the paper." She walked to the kitchen with him. "And then we'll…"

"I haven't figured that part out yet." Oliver admitted. "But I'll think of something."

"So what's for breakfast?" Chloe ran over to the table and sat down excitedly.

"You tell me." Oliver sat down across from her. "I made dinner last night."

"You bought dinner last night." Chloe pointed out.

"Same thing." He brushed her off.

"Ok." Chloe stood up. "I'm getting dressed, I'm going to go get breakfast and then I'm going to pick up a paper and maybe a surprise."

"Oh a surprise." Oliver perked up. "What kind of surprise?"

"You'll have to wait and see." She kissed his cheek. "Other wise it won't be a surprise."

"You have no idea." Oliver smiled.

"Not a clue." Chloe laughed as she walked into the bedroom.

"I come bearing gifts." Chloe walked through the elevator. "We've got the Saturday paper, we've got bagels and smoked salmon, and we've got board games." She held up her bags and Oliver looked at her confused.

"Board games?" He asked.

"Well, you don't want to spend the day in bed, and we don't have cable here, we can't go out so, board games." She set the bags on the counter and smiled.

"Board games it is."

"Awesome." Chloe pulled two boxes out of the bags and smiled. "Monopoly or Trivial Pursuit?"

"Oh." Chloe laughed jumping up. "That's five thousand dollars and you loose a turn." She did a little dance as Oliver passed over the money. She looked down at his side and smiled. "I do believe that's the game."

"I'm out." Oliver nodded smiling at her.

"Ok, time for Trivial Pursuit."

"How about we go back to bed." Oliver offered.

"You wanted to spend the day together out of bed, so that's what we'll do." Chloe packed up the Monopoly board and Oliver just sat back and watched her. Even though he lost, he had fun. It was nice to sit and read the paper while eating her deli bough breakfast as she tried to steal whatever section of the paper he happened to be reading until she ended up in his lap, reading along with him.

He loved the way she was so serious about the different pieces of Monopoly that she had to give him a twenty minute lecture on what piece he should be. The Racecar was too flashy and inevitably would end up bankrupt by the fourth round. The dog was too excitable and acted before he thought, leading to bad property decisions that could cost you a lot of money. Then after convincing him that the thimble was the only way to go, it was cautious and protective by nature, she announced that he couldn't be the thimble because she was going to be the thimble. In the end he settled for the top hat because it was sophisticated yet cautious and wouldn't cost him too much money.

She took the game so seriously, yet managed to have fun with the whole thing and yet, still he felt like something was missing, something wasn't quite right. The whole day was almost perfect. "You ready?" She called out to him and he snapped back to the present and smiled as she pulled out the dice. "I have to warn you, I am a master of useless Trivia."

"So I'm going to loose this game too?" Oliver asked.

"How about this." Chloe offered smiling devilishly. "We'll play strip Trivial Pursuit."

"Now it sounds interesting." Oliver smiled and rolled the dice.

"So…" Chloe asked him lazily as she laid on Oliver's chest.

"Best Trivial Pursuit game ever." Oliver breathed out slowly.

"I told you." Chloe smiled.

"I'll never doubt you again." Oliver smiled at her.

"I'm sorry our day out of bed was shot." Chloe rubbed lightly on Oliver's chest.

"I'm not." He assured her. "So, what…" He was cut off by the sound of Chloe's phone ringing.

"I gotta get that." She smiled sheepishly and pulled away from him. She climbed out of bed, looked at the phone and walked out of the room. Oliver sighed, that meant Lex. He could hear her whispered conversation from the bedroom and he tried to ignore it.

"No, the spa's good, I've got a seaweed wrap later and then I think I'll take a sauna." She said quietly. "Tuesday? No that's not problem, if you're meetings get pushed back, they get pushed back. No you don't really need to bring me anything back, I know…I'll see you Tuesday then. Ok."

Oliver hurried to pretend like he wasn't listening when she walked back in the room and climbed in the bed. "You heard all that didn't you?" She asked nervously. Oliver just nodded. "I'm sorry, I couldn't not answer…"

"It's ok." Oliver forced a smile. "Don't worry about it." He pulled her down next to him. "So I was thinking we could do this your way, spend the rest of the night in bed, order Chinese." Chloe looked up at him. "I remember you said once that there was nothing better than eating Chinese food straight out of the carton while lying in bed."

"You remember that?" Chloe squinted. "That was years ago."

"I remember pretty much everything you ever said to me." Oliver smiled at her.

"Chinese it is then." Chloe smiled lying her head on his chest.

* * *

They laid in bed for the rest of the night, eating Chinese food straight from the carton, which required a bit of tutoring in the fine art of eating with chopsticks for Oliver. They laughed, they talked, and they reminisced.

"Do you remember that time in Monaco?" Chloe laughed.

"Oh God." Oliver rolled his eyes. "You and Victor had just seen Casino Royale and were playing James Bond the whole time."

"Can you really blame us? You bring us to a casino, where you keep this guy busy with a poker game while Victor and I break into his room and download his hard drive, that just screams James Bond." Chloe pointed out.

"I know, but did you have to go around the whole night referring to him as 007?" Oliver asked.

"Hey, just be glad that Moneypenny was always my favorite." Chloe reminded him. "He could have been walking around calling me Pussy Galore."

"Thank God for small favors." Oliver rolled his eyes. "You spoke in code for two days, I don't even think you guys knew what you were saying."

"I remember that." Chloe said suddenly. "You know as hard as I tried I finally got him to order a Martini but he refused to request it shaken, not stirred. But we had fun, and got the job done."

"Yeah and I won fifty thousand dollars." Oliver nodded.

"Because you cheated." Chloe reminded him, stealing some of his rice.

"Hey, Bart can run around a table, check everyone's hand and be back in his position before anyone even noticed, I'm not supposed to take advantage of that?" Oliver asked.

"Cheater." Chloe poked his chest.

"I gave all the money to charity." He brushed her off.

"Well, that makes it a little better." Chloe admitted.

* * *

"So, who were those girls?" Chloe asked after dinner was over. "The ones in the bar?"

"The bar?" Oliver looked confused.

"In Madagascar." Chloe prompted him.

"Oh." It suddenly dawned on Oliver. "Oh, Greta and Rachel."

"And who are Greta and Rachel?" Chloe asked.

"Jealous?" Oliver smiled at her. "They worked at the hospital where I was being treated."

"Oh!" Chloe looked up at him.

"They were my nurses, and then when I woke up, they were my friends." Oliver said. "Rachel's a little abrasive but once you get to know her she's not so bad."

"Rachel must have been the one who called me a bitch." Chloe said.

"Probably. I don't really see Greta calling anyone a bitch." Oliver said.

"She's the one who came after me when I tried to leave." Chloe smiled.

"Sounds like Greta." Oliver nodded. "They were really good to me. When I didn't know who I was, they gave me a name, they kept me company."

"They sound really nice." Chloe smiled at him. "I'm glad you had someone there for you."

"They were really nice." Oliver said. "Greta used to play this game, to keep herself entertained. She'd come up with these stories, these histories for all of the coma patients. They were always so fantastical, secret agents and daredevils."

"What was her story for you?" Chloe asked.

"She said she couldn't come up with one. She said that anytime she came up with something, she just had a feeling that it could never compare to the real thing."

"She seems very perceptive." Chloe smiled.

"They tried to come up with a story for you." Oliver told her. "When I couldn't remember who you were. There was one where you were the princess of some small European Country and we could never be together because you weren't allowed to marry anyone who wasn't Royalty so we decided to run off together only something terrible happened."

"Sounds exciting." Chloe smiled.

"I think you'd have like them, if you'd gotten to know them." Oliver thought about it.

"I probably would have." Chloe nodded.

* * *

"It took two hours to get the fire out." Chloe yawned against his chest hours later. "And from then on I was banned from ever cooking alone."

"Domestic Goddess you aren't." Oliver said, his eyes closing.

"Yeah well…" Chloe drifted off, her sentence never finished as she drifted off to sleep. Oliver looked down at her and smiled before frowning. They'd spent hours in bed, talking, telling stories, just being together but still, just like when they were playing, just like the night before, he felt something was off, something just wasn't quite right, but before he had time to put his finger on the problem, he'd fallen asleep.

* * *

Chloe rolled over and stretched out, her hands reaching out for Oliver's body only to come up empty. She opened her eyes confused when she saw he wasn't there. It was three a.m. and his sleep shirt and pants were lying on the bed. She got up and checked the bathroom, the gear room, and she finally had to realize that he wasn't there, he'd left. She sighed and waited for him, not allowing herself to think of the possibility that he wouldn't come back.

Chloe was sitting on the couch staring at the balcony when Oliver dropped down, dressed in full Green Arrow gear. He slid the door open quietly and was closing it when Chloe turned on the lamp next to her. "You went out?" She said and Oliver turned around slowly.

"Yeah I went out." He walked past her and to the bedroom. "Is that a problem?" He asked over his shoulder as Chloe followed him into the room.

"Yeah that's a problem." Chloe said leaning against the door frame. "I thought this weekend was for us." She said. "You asked for this, me and you all weekend, and I fall asleep and you leave?"

"Yeah." Oliver turned around pulling his top off and tossing it on the bed. "Well where were you Chloe?" He grabbed the pants and pulled them down. "Cause you weren't with me."

"I was right here." Chloe glared at him. "I've been here Oliver."

"No you haven't." He threw his pants on the bed angrily. "You weren't here with me today, you weren't here with me tonight." He grabbed his sweat pants and pulled them on before walking out of the bedroom passing by Chloe without a look.

"Hey." Chloe screamed after him. "You can't say something like that and then just walk away."

"You want to do this now?" Oliver slammed the cabinets around looking for coffee. Chloe pushed past him and grabbed the coffee from the freezer and started a pot.

"We need to do this now." Chloe turned around and faced him as the coffee started.

"Fine." He sighed and looked at her. "Are you with me here Chloe, are you really here with me."

"Of course I am." She said confused.

"No, half of you is here with me, half of you is somewhere else. I don't know where, maybe it's on your work, maybe it's on something else, maybe its on Lex." He'd said it, it was out there.

"On Lex?" Chloe asked him. "How can you even say something like that?"

He grabbed for her hand and held it up to her. "You haven't even taken off your wedding ring." He dropped her hand and stepped back. "Ever. Never once since you've been with me have you ever taken off the ring."

Chloe stared at the ring on her hand and then back up at Oliver. "What's this about Oliver, because it's not about the ring, it can't be about the ring."

"Then take it off." Oliver crossed his arms over his chest. Chloe looked down at her hand and hesitated. Oliver just hung his head and grabbed the coffee pot. "Your right it wasn't about the ring, but the fact that you can't even take it off…" He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and dropped it on the counter. "What is this?"

Chloe reached out slowly and picked up the folded note. She didn't have to open it up, she knew what it was, she knew it by heart. "Where did you get this?" She asked as she unfolded it.

"I got up to go to the bathroom and I was hanging up your jacket, I found it in the pocket." Oliver closed his eyes and thought about the note. _I can't do this anymore, we can't do this anymore._

"I wasn't going to give it to you." Chloe looked down.

"Then why was it in your pocket." Oliver looked up at her. _I love you but I can't be with you, not anymore._

"It's always in my pocket." Chloe looked up at him. "Every single time I see you it's in my pocket." She folded it back up and looked at him.

"I don't understand." Oliver shook his head. "I need you to explain it to me Chloe because I don't understand. Do you want to be here? Do you want to be with me?"

"Yes." He could hear the truth in her voice but it didn't mean much.

"Then why are trying so hard not to be?" He looked down at her ring. She didn't say anything. "Take off the ring Chloe."

"I can't." She admitted and he turned around and walked away. "Wait." She called after him. "It's not Lex, I mean it's not Lex the way you think it is. I can't take off the ring because it's the only thing that keeps me firmly rooted in reality. When I see you…everything else just goes away. There is no more Lex, there is no more marriage, it's just you and me."

"Why is that a bad thing?" Oliver asked.

"Because there is a Lex, and there is a marriage, and I need to remember that so I don't get carried away, so I don't loose myself in you." Chloe said. "So I don't forget that at the end of the day, I have to go back to that life."

"But you don't." Oliver said.

"But I do." Chloe sighed. "I understand that this is hard on you, that this is not the way we want to be, sneaking around, stealing time. As hard as it is for you, think of what it's like for me. I get to have this great time with you and then I have to go home, I have to go home to Lex and I have the be the wife and I have to pretend that I wasn't just in your arms and that's hard."

"It's hard for me too." Oliver said.

Chloe shook her head. "I wrote that note after our first night together and I've been carrying it around with me ever since. Every time I'm coming to meet you I put the note in my pocket. I'm ready to give it to you, I need to give it to you, to end this thing. But then I see you and I can't."

"Why do you need to end this?" Oliver asked her. "Do you love me?"

"Of course I love you." Chloe smiled at him.

"Then why are you trying to leave me?"

"This isn't fair Oliver." Chloe said. "It isn't fair to you, it isn't fair to me, and yeah, it isn't fair to Lex."

"What are you talking about?" Oliver asked.

"You wanted this weekend because every other day wasn't enough, so then what? We do every other weekend, but that's not going to be enough. It'll never be enough." Chloe pointed out to him. "I mean where do you see us in a year Oliver, still sneaking away, stealing time?"

"No, in a year I see us together." He grabbed her hands. "Don't you?"

"No." Chloe pulled her hands away. "Is that really how you think this was going to end? Did you really think that Lex and I would get a divorce and that you and I would be together and live happily ever after."

"Yes." Oliver whispered. "Don't you?"

"No." She shook her head.

"No." Oliver looked over at her and nodded. "I see."

"I love you Oliver." Chloe pleaded with him to believe her. "I love you so much but I can't keep doing this to me, I can't keep doing this to you. It's too hard, it's too hard to say goodbye, it's too hard to walk away from you. It's killing me."

"So don't." Oliver said suddenly. "Don't say goodbye. Don't walk away." He grabbed her face and kissed her hard. "Run away with me. Forget Lex, forget everything. Run away with me."

"And go where?" Chloe asked looking up at him with tears running down her face. "Where would we go Oliver? Where would we hide from Lionel?"

"I know the perfect place." He smiled at her. "This little island off the coast of Madagascar, it's really easy to get lost there."

She smiled sadly. "Ok, so we run away, we hide away, then what? What would we do when he decided to out you and the guys and Clark to the rest of the world?"

"I don't care." Oliver leaned his forehead against hers.

"Yes you do." Chloe said. "I know you love me, I know that. But you aren't that guy, you don't put yourself above others, you wouldn't do that to the guys." She stroked his cheek.

"So what does this mean?" Oliver whispered. "Where does this put us?"

"The same place we've always been." Chloe smiled sadly at him. "The question is where do we go?"

"I'm always going to want more." Oliver said to her.

"And I'm not going to be able to give it to you." Chloe took a step away. "So maybe we should…maybe…" she couldn't' say the words if she said them out loud, they would be too real, they would mean something, they'd be out there and she wouldn't be able to take them back. "You were gone for eight years and even after everything I couldn't let you go. I held onto you for those eight years and I'm holding onto you now, clutching on with all my might and you're stuck in this half life. You can't move forward, you can't…I'm not going to be able to let you go, I'm not that strong, I'm not that selfless so I need you to be the better man here Oliver, I need you to let me go."

"I don't want to let you go. Never." He shook her head.

"Oliver I can't walk away from you. I can spend the next fifty years of my life sneaking around with you even though I know it's not enough for me or for you, knowing it's not healthy for either of us, not fair. I can't walk away from you so I need you to walk away from me."

Oliver stood there in shock. This wasn't how he thought this weekend would go, this wasn't how he thought it would end. "Is this what you really want?"

"No." Chloe whispered, practically sobbing now. "But it's what I need, it's what you need."

Oliver didn't say anything as stared at her. "Ok." Oliver whispered and walked past her to the bedroom. A minute later he was standing at the balcony with a bag in his hand. "You can still change your mind." She shook her head no and looked away as he walked out the door.

* * *

"She's been in her room since yesterday." Chloe heard Hill whisper very loudly out side her bedroom. "She won't shower, she won't eat. Mr. Luther's out of town and I didn't know who else to call."

"It's ok Hill, I got it." Lois said and Chloe closed her eyes trying to dry her tears up quickly. The door opened and Lois walked in slowly. "Chloe." Chloe didn't answer and Lois climbed up on the bed and laid in front of her. "Hey." She whispered and Chloe lifted her head.

"Hey." Her throat was scratchy and her nose was stuffy.

"You wanna tell me what's going on?" Lois reached forward and pushed a strand of dirty hair out of Chloe's face. "Hill says you aren't eating."

"I'm not hungry." Chloe protested.

"What happened Chloe?" Lois asked concerned.

"Oliver and I…we…he left, went back to Star City." Chloe sat up a little. "We had a talk and we realized that it wasn't fair, what we were doing and we decided to stop seeing each other, but then he left this morning, I just didn't think he'd leave."

"Honey." Lois scooted closer to Chloe and hugged her tight. "I think it's great, I know it was hard and I know you didn't want to but you did the right thing, letting him go, ending it."

"I did?" Chloe asked. "So why does it hurt so bad? Why did he leave?"

"Think about it from his perspective. The woman that he loves, is married to another man, a man he hates, and there's nothing he can do about it and he can't even see her. He couldn't stay here, couldn't stay that close to you, it was probably killing him."

"Yeah?" Chloe sniffled.

"But you've got to pull yourself together." Lois stroked her hair. "You can't do this. Lex is gonna wonder what's going on with you and there's no good excuse for this. I don't think he's going to buy that you're this upset over Tanya being voted off American Idol."

Chloe laughed a little. "I'm not saying you should stop being sad or stop loving him, you can't do that. But you just can't do this either."

"I know." Chloe nodded and sat up. "Can I do it for two more days?" Chloe asked. "Lex won't be back until Tuesday. His meeting got pushed back."

"Yeah we can do it until Tuesday." Lois smiled at her. "But you aren't doing it alone, and you aren't doing it here." She grabbed Chloe. "Get dressed we're going to go to my house, we're going to eat gallons of ice cream, tons of pizza, and watch sad movies."

"Yeah?" Chloe stood up and walked to the bathroom. "What movies?" She sniffed.

"Oh." Lois seemed surprised. "Well, I guess the usual break up movies." She shrugged. "An Affair to Remember, Casablanca, oh and of course the last X-men movie."

Chloe paused and turned to Lois. "How is the last X-men movie a break up movie."

"It's not." Lois smiled. "But I know it'll cheer you up." Chloe just stared at her. "Come on, there's no way you can watch the end of that movie, watch Jean die and not feel a little happy inside."

"I hate Jean." Chloe agreed. "She's the lamest X-men ever."

"Exactly." Lois smiled. "Admit it. You already feel a little bit better just thinking about it."

"You're right." Chloe smiled. "I do feel a little better." She started to close the door and stopped, turning around. "Can you call Victor?

"He'll meet us there." Lois smiled pulling out her phone.

* * *

Oliver walked into his apartment in Star City and set his bag on the ground. The place was quite. His assistant had someone come in yesterday and dust, air it out so it didn't seem so un lived in. He stood in the doorway, not ready to walk in. In his head, he was doing this with Chloe, he was carrying her over the threshold and she was smiling and laughing. Except here he was without her, completely without her. He'd never carry her over that threshold. He'd never get to see her sitting across from him at the kitchen table, her hair messed up from sleep and possibly early morning sex, sipping her coffee and trying to steal the paper from him. He'd never watch movies with her, cuddled together on the couch, or watch her sleep next to him in his bed. "I can't be here right now." He sighed and turned around to open the door.

Maybe he'd go for a walk, maybe he'd grab something to eat, maybe he'd get really drunk. He smiled, liking the last idea, maybe if he was drunk enough he could walk in this place and not see Chloe everywhere, making coffee in his kitchen, complaining about his crap all over the bathroom. Scotch, he needed lots and lots of Scotch. He pulled the door open, much harder than he intended to and froze.

"What the hell are you doing?" A French accented voice snapped at him. He stared at the two woman in the hallway confused for a second until the one who had spoken pulled her sunglasses down and he frowned.

"Rachel?" He squinted at her and she smiled pushing past him and walking into the apartment.

"Yeah yeah, great to see you, it's been a while, wow, this is a nice place."

"Hey Oliver." The other woman pulled down her sunglasses and smiled sweetly at him.

"Greta?" He smiled despite the pit in his stomach and reached out to hug her. "What are you guys doing here?" He ushered Greta into the house where Rachel was already making herself comfortable.

"Come on? Seriously? You don't know why where here?" Rachel plopped down onto his couch and glared at him. "You call Greta and tell her that after everything you went to you're just going to let her go?"

Oliver looked between Greta and Rachel confused. He'd kept in touch with Greta since leaving, keeping her up to date on what was going on, the affair, Chloe and Lex, everything. He wasn't sure why, maybe it was because she would just listen, she didn't have the connection with the other people involved she could listen unbiased, hear only the facts and not have them clouded by preconceived prejudices. "I'm confused." He closed the door and looked at the two girls. "What are you doing here?"

"Look, we got your sorry as out of that coma."

"I'm pretty sure that's not what happened." Oliver smiled.

"We nursed you back to help. We played spy versus spy at a dive bar in Madagascar to get you back together with this woman you claimed was the love of your life, and when we finally let you out on your own, what do you do? You go and screw everything up." Rachel informed him. "How did you even manage to pee without us?"

A/N: So I've got it finished. There are two more chapters after this one and I was going to be mean and not put them up right away but I get just as excited about posting the chapters as you get about waiting for them to be posted so I couldn't resist. But since I was nice enough to do that, you guys have to review, even though it's over, please, I live for reviews. Oh, and I owe you guys an apology, you were a lot more open minded about the last chapter than I thought you were going to be so yeah you!


	10. Chapter 10

Oliver stood staring at Rachel confused. "So wait, you came all the way down here, to keep me from breaking up with Chloe?"

"Oh, and to give you this." Rachel passed him an envelope. Oliver took it quietly. "Oh and to tell you that you're ruining Greta's life." Oliver ignored the letter for a minute and turned to Greta.

"I'm ruining your life?" He asked concerned. How had he managed that, it was quite possible he'd ruined his life, ruined Chloe's but ruined Greta's also.

"No." Greta shook her head fervently and Rachel sighed.

"Yes." She countered. "Since she finally was able to take some time off, because of the very generous gift you left us with, she decided to start writing her novel."

"That's great." Oliver smiled and motioned for her to sit down.

Greta smiled and they all sat in the living room. "Well it's not finished or anything."

"Yeah but because I know that Greta, just like you, can't do anything without me, I sent the first couple of chapters and brief description off to some publishing company's and she got a contract."

"That's even better." Oliver smiled. "Wow, a contract. You're going to be a published author."

"Not likely." Rachel scoffed. "Thanks to you."

"What did I do?" Oliver asked Rachel confused.

"Well the stories about you isn't it?" Rachel leaned back on the couch. "Obviously names were changed to protect the innocent and what not, plus it's fictional and everything."

"It's about me?" Oliver turned to Greta.

"Well sort of, you gave me the idea anyway. It's about a man who wakes up from a coma far from home and he doesn't remember anything except a face and a name of a woman. The story is him trying to find this woman and find out who he is, only to find her and realize that she's gotten married and started a new life."

"Like I said." Rachel said. "It's about you, but now her deadlines coming up right, and she can't finish."

"Why can't you finish?" Oliver asked Greta but Rachel was the one who answered.

"You screwed up her happily ever after didn't you?" Rachel sighed. "I mean no one's going to buy a book where this guy basically goes through heaven and earth to find this woman only to be a pratt and leave her."

"He's not being a pratt, he's doing the right thing." Oliver protested.

"No, he's being a pratt. She doesn't love her husband, she's not in a real marriage, and she loves the guy."

"But that's not enough." Oliver pointed out. "Because she can't leave her husband and trying to split her life between the two is hurting her too much, and the guy just can't do that to her anymore."

"Yeah that I don't get." Rachel said suddenly. "Why exactly can't she leave her husband? She doesn't love him, she doesn't want to be married to him."

"It's…complicated." Oliver sighed. "But he's not, I mean I'm not being a pratt."

"So it's better then?" Greta asked confused. "Not being with her at all is better than being with her a little?"

"No." He admitted. "It's killing me."

"Pratt." Rachel said under her breath.

"Ok, can we just table that conversation for now?" Oliver sighed and looked down in his hand. "You had to fly halfway around the world to give me a letter? Do you not have a post office in Mamoudzou?"

"Funny." Rachel rolled her eyes. "I just thought I'd give it to you in person."

Oliver looked down at the letter and opened it up. It was pretty fancy paper, thick and embellished and as he read down the front he started to smile. "You're getting married?" Rachel couldn't help but smile back as she held out her hand to him and looked down at the ring on her finger.

"It turns out." Greta joined in the conversation. "That Mr. Steven's has a grandson. A very handsome grandson who'd been away in the Peace Corp and only just got back and started visiting again."

"Mr. Stevens…" Oliver racked his brain. "The coma guy? The one who always beats you at poker?"

"He doesn't always beat me." Rachel huffed.

"So Gregory, that's his name, came to visit his grandfather one day and saw the jar with the money in it. He asked the nurses what it was all about and when they told him about Rachel he thought it was one of the nicest things he'd ever heard so he tracked her down and the rest as they say is history."

"That's great." Oliver smiled at her. "Really."

"Yeah and the good part is, he's rubbish at poker." Rachel smiled. "No where near as good as his granddad."

"Wow." Oliver sat back. "So you're getting married, you're getting your book published."

"And you're being a pratt." Rachel smiled. "We're all caught up, so let's start figuring out how we're going to fix all this." She rubbed her hands together and Oliver sighed.

* * *

"Want some more pizza?" Lois nodded to the pizza box lying on the coffee table.

"No." Chloe groaned. "I can't even move and if I try to put one more thing in my mouth, I'm pretty sure I'll explode."

"I know." Lois grabbed her stomach. "You feel better?" She asked hopefully.

"No." Chloe shook her head.

"You want to watch Jean die again?" Lois asked.

Chloe turned her head to the television where the last scene of X-men was on pause. "Nah." She sighed and turned her head.

"Where did Victor go?" Lois asked suddenly, looking around the room.

"I don't know." Chloe shrugged. "He said he had to go pick up something very important and he'd be right back, that was like two hours ago." Almost as if by magic there was a knocking on the door and then Victor's voice.

"A little help here." He called out to them.

Lois pulled herself up off the couch painfully and opened the door. Victor was standing there annoyed, his arms full with a giant box. "What is that?" Chloe asked sitting up.

"This is for you." Victor came in and set the box on the coffee table. "I thought it might cheer you up."

She smiled at him and looked inside, only to smile brighter. "And Easy Bake Oven?" She looked back up.

"Not just an Easy Bake Oven." He said pulling the pieces out of the box. "An Easy Bake Oven Snack center with mixer." He pulled a small plastic mixing bowl out of the oven and Chloe clapped, excited.

"This is exactly the one I wanted when I was little." She said examining the pieces. "But dad wouldn't let me have one because Lois somehow managed to get third degree burns playing with hers." Chloe glared at her cousin.

"I was impatient." Lois sighed, as if they'd had this argument a hundred times. "Stupid light bulb was taking forever to bake the stupid cake."

"It's not stupid." Chloe glared a Lois, gathering everything up in her arms and walking to the kitchen. "I'm going to make a cake." She smiled happily.

"I thought you just said if you put another piece of food in your mouth you'd explode." Lois groaned.

"Well, I'll make you guys a cake." Chloe busied herself plugging the oven in and going through the mixes as Lois glared at Victor who was laughing at her.

"You're eating one too." She told him and he his smile faded, though he was glad that he could do something to make Chloe feel better.

An hour and half later Lois and Victor were sitting on the couch watching X-men over again. "Ok, seriously, when's that stupid cake going to be done, the smell is actually making me hungry."

"Be patient." Chloe said from the same position she'd been in for the last forty five minutes, chin on her hands as she stared through the small window at the tiny cake. "Just another minute, I swear."

When the cake was finally finished, Chloe poured on the icing and cut it in half, presenting the pieces to Victor and Lois with a triumphant smile on her face. The two guinea pigs looked at each other cautiously before biting into the cakes, only to freeze and then spit them out again. "No!" Chloe cried. "Are they that bad?" She grabbed Lois cake, took a bite and at least tried to chew before eventually spitting it out on the plate. "They are that bad."

"Well, childhood memories are always better than the reality." Lois shrugged.

"I guess." Chloe sat down on the couch, her bad mood returning slowly.

"I could make a real cake." Chloe looked over at Lois and raised an eyebrow. "Ok, I can go to the bakery down the street and buy a real cake."

"No, it's ok, I'm ok." She smiled at the two of them. "It was a sweet gesture. Thanks."

"That's what I'm here for." Victor told her.

Lois just sighed, because she knew that Chloe was not ok.

Later that night, after Victor had gone home, taking the Easy Bake Oven with him, and Chloe thought Lois was asleep she broke down. She cried harder than thought she ever thought she could cry, almost like she was trying her hardest to push all of the feelings, all the hurt, all the sadness out. "Shh." Lois whispered, wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulders. "It's ok sweetie."

"I did the right thing huh?" Chloe looked up at Lois, her face streaked with tears. "Then why does it hurt so bad?"

"It's ok." Lois whispered, stroking her hair and trying her hardest to calm her down.

* * *

"I'm not having this conversation with you again." Oliver sighed as Rachel followed him around the apartment. They'd stayed for a few days and done nothing but bother Oliver about Chloe, which meant that Oliver was constantly thinking about Chloe, which defeated his purpose for leaving Metropolis to come to Star City.

"Like hell you aren't." Rachel said slamming her hand on the counter. "Look, we're supposed to leave in three hours but I swear to God I'll get a later flight. I'm not leaving here until you stop being an idiot and go after her."

"I can't." Oliver screamed. "What is so hard for you to understand about that? I can't go back to her. She doesn't want me to go back to her, and I just…I can't."

"Can't or won't?" Rachel put her hands on her hips.

"I'm trying to do the right thing here and you are just making it harder."

"You're not doing the right thing." Greta said from behind them. "You're doing the easy thing." Oliver was surprised by her, she'd managed to stay out of most of Rachel and Oliver's arguments for the past couple of days but apparently she couldn't hold her tongue any more.

"The easy thing?" Oliver asked her. "The easy thing? You think this is easy for me? I feel like the whole of my insides have been pulled out through my belly button. Every time I take a breath it hurts, when I think about the fact that I won't see her again, see her smile, touch her, kiss her, my heart breaks all over again." He leaned against the counter. "I had to move halfway across the country to get away from her. You think this is easy?"

"Easier than staying." Greta said. "Easier than fighting for her. It's always easier in the end to let something go."

"But it's what she wants me to do." Oliver said lamely.

"No it's not." Lois sighed standing in the doorway to Oliver's apartment. "It's what she thinks she should do, it's what I told her to do and I was wrong."

"Lois." Oliver stood up straighter and stared at the reporter confused.

"God she's a mess Oliver." Lois walked into the room, completely ignoring the two women standing there. "I have never seen her like this."

"You can't tell me this Lois." Oliver took a step back.

"But she's falling apart without you." Lois shook her head. "She's barely holding it together. How can that be the right thing to do when you're miserable and she's miserable?"

"I can't win in this." Oliver said. "I stay and I'm pulling her in two, I leave and I'm ripping her to pieces. I can't win."

"It isn't about winning." Lois sighed.

"I'm trying to be the better man here, I'm trying so hard."

"You're not being the better man." Lois touched his arm. "The better man would stay, he would fight."

"That's what I've been saying." Rachel threw her hands in the air.

"I'm not saying it's going to be easy, and it'll probably get worse before it gets better, but it will get better because I know you and I know you'll do whatever it takes to make it better." Lois told him. Oliver seemed to sink back against the counter, deflated. "You're not that guy Oliver, you don't run away when things are hard, you don't leave."

"I left you." He pointed out.

"And you came back." She smiled. "And I pushed you away because we weren't right together, because fighting for you wasn't worth it to me. But I know that fighting for Chloe is worth it. This whole thing is messy and complicated and right now it seems like there is no way out like you're stuck, but being stuck together has to be better than this, better than apart."

"It is." Oliver said in a whisper.

"Then go back, fight for her, fight for you, don't give up." Lois sighed.

"You're right." Oliver said. "I know your right, I knew this when she asked me to leave, I knew this when I walked away but I thought I was doing what was best for Chloe."

"Yeah, the both of you should probably leave the thinking to people much better qualified." Lois joked.

"Oh, I see, so I've been telling you for two days to go after her and she comes in and in five minutes you've changed your mind." Rachel pouted.

"At least he changed his mind." Greta pointed out.

Lois finally seemed to notice the other two women in the room. "What's up with the French girls?"

* * *

Chloe turned off the last set of lights and waved at Kate as she got in the elevator. Working helped, it made her forget for a few hours at least that he wasn't there anymore, that he wouldn't be there again. She grabbed her bag and headed for the elevator only to stop and change directions. She climbed up the staircase and sat down on the cat walk, watching the gears turn slowly as the second hand on the giant clock ticked away.

She was trying, trying hard to be ok, to be back to normal. She tried to grieve quietly because she couldn't afford to grieve publicly, but she knew she wasn't pulling it off. She wasn't sleeping anymore, her insomnia back in full swing, she was barely talking to Lex, barely there half the time and she knew that he had to notice. She'd finally come full circle, right back to the place she'd started, stuck in a marriage she didn't want to be in, to a man whom she'd come to hate the past couple of days for no other reason than he was stuck there with her, and she was again grieving the loss of a man whom she truly loved, but couldn't be with. Only this time it was worse, worse because he was alive, he was out there somewhere walking around, living a life without her in it. As strange as it sounded, it was better when he was dead, when she thought he was dead it made it easier to know that's why they weren't together, that it wasn't their choice.

"I was hoping I'd find you here." A voice shook her out of her stupor and she turned to find Oliver standing at the top of the stairs.

She scrambled to her feet, wondering if it was possible to be hallucinating in her grief. "Oliver?" She reached out a hand tentatively and when it connected with his cheek she seemed to melt, as if her bones had all turned to mush and her knees gave way. Oliver reached out and grabbed her before she fell, pulling her tight against him, afraid to let go. "You're really here?" Chloe whispered against his chest.

"I'm really here." He said, resting his chin on top of her head.

"Oh God, it was only five days and I…I missed you so much, so much more because I thought you were never coming back."

"I had to." Oliver told her. "I couldn't leave you, couldn't stay away. I'm not strong enough, I know you wanted me to be the strong one but I'm not strong enough to leave you."

"That was stupid." Chloe shook her head and looked up at him. "I was stupid. Don't ever listen to me again. Telling you to leave was the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life and if you don't hurry up and kiss me I'll just keep on talking and talking and…" Oliver cut her off, his lips on hers, silencing her ramble and breathing renewed life into the both of them. The fear of having lost one another forever, the pain was slowly washed away as Oliver pulled Chloe tighter and she responded in kind. "Never leave again." Chloe pulled away, tears running down her face. "No matter what I say, no matter what I do, promise me."

"I promise." Oliver kissed her again.

They didn't make it to the bedroom. They barely made it down the stairs before all the clothes were discarded and hands were aching for contact, skin to skin, mouth to mouth, hips to hips. "I'm taking whatever you can give me." Oliver told her. "I don't care how much it is." He laid her down gently on the couch.

"I'll give you everything." Chloe said to him. "Everything I have, everything I can." As if to make a point she reached over and pulled off her wedding ring, setting it on the coffee table and Oliver grabbed her and kissed her again.

"We can figure this out." He mumbled against her neck. "We can make it work, we'll do whatever we have to."

"I don't know what to do Oliver." Chloe said as his hands made a delicious trail of pleasure down her skin. "But I'll figure it out. Whatever it takes." She gasped as his lips found a sensitive area behind her ear and he mumbled promises to her, promises that she clung to just to keep from losing all sense of reality. Promises that she breathed in as if they were the air and she was suffocating.

And then there were no more whispers, no more promises or declarations, there were just body's moving together perfectly, hips so in sync it was as if every movement had been choreographed. There was just the pleasure, the pleasure of his body on top of hers, of him, deep inside of her and the pleasure of the knowledge that he'd always be there, he'd always be with her, he'd never leave again, and then there was just the pleasure, wave after wave, so powerful, so wonderful, it brought tears to Chloe's eyes as she cried out and Oliver collapsed on top of her, still kissing her neck, still clutching her hips, reluctant to let go, to move away, to not be touching her.

"Well, this was certainly unexpected." A voice said from the elevator and Chloe and Oliver turned to find Lex standing there with a bottle of wine, just staring at the scene in front of him.

"Oh God." Chloe managed to say as the elevator doors closed behind him.

"Getting dressed is generally what happens now." Lex stepped closer into the room and headed to the kitchen. "I'll open the wine."

"Oh God." Chloe said again, burying her head in Oliver's chest.

"It's ok, it'll be fine." He kissed her temple. "Just get dressed, we can do this."

"Right." Chloe nodded pulling away from him. Most of her clothes were on steps so Oliver handed her his undershirt and boxers and as she pulled him on she wondered what was worse, talking to Lex wearing Oliver's clothes or nothing at all.

"It's gonna be ok." Oliver said grabbing her hand as they walked into the kitchen. Lex was standing there holding out a glass of wine to Chloe, she took it for lack of anything better to do. It's not like she could refuse him, not now.

"I wasn't sure if you were a wine drinker." Lex set the bottle on the counter and then looked up at Oliver.

"I'm fine." Oliver said cautiously. "Thanks."

This was too strange, too civilized. "I have to say I'm confused." He walked past them and back into the lounge area.

"I can explain…" Chloe started after him.

"I was under the impression that this whole thing was over when you went back to Star City." Lex said to Oliver.

This took both Oliver and Chloe by surprise as they stared at Lex. "You knew?"

"You're a bad liar Chloe." Lex sipped his wine. "I've known all along." He thought about it for a minute. "Hell I guess I knew when we got married."

"How could you…" Chloe took another step forward cautiously.

"I moved all of your things into the house. Where did you think I moved them from?" He asked her and it dawned on her. She was living at the Clock Tower, Lex had gotten her things from the Clock Tower at a time when Oliver still owned it.

"You know when you saw him again, after he got back, and you pretended not to know him, to have ever met him, I got suspicious. I knew you knew him, I knew you were living with him before we were married. The only reason to pretend you don't know someone is if you know them too well." Lex pointed out.

"I'm sorry." Chloe said to him. "I didn't want you to find out this way."

"I'm sure you didn't want me to find out at all." Lex smiled at her. "I'm very surprised at you Chloe."

"Surprised?" Chloe asked cautiously.

"I haven't been the world's greatest husband." Lex told her. "I've had my fair share of indiscretions but you." He held up his glass and toasted her. "You had an affair. A full blown, sneaking around, living a double life, affair, I guess I never pegged you for the type."

Chloe set the wine glass on the table and walked over to Lex. "I am sorry and I really wanted to do this differently, but it's done now and I can't take it back."

"No you can't." Lex shook his head. "It doesn't matter Chloe." He stood up and looked down at her. "Go get your clothes and get dressed, we're going home." Chloe looked between Lex and Oliver unsure of what to do. Lex noticed her hesitation. "Is there a problem?"

"Go get your clothes Chloe." Oliver said through clenched teeth and Lex inclined his head, almost as a strange thanks. Chloe walked out of the room cautiously. "Lex." Oliver started and Lex turned on him, the soft smile and gentle voice he'd used with Chloe gone.

"This is over now." Lex told him.

"No it's not." Oliver shook his head.

"Yes it is." Lex told him. "You're going back to Star City and you're not going to talk to her again, you're not going to call her or see her or touch her again."

"I'm not leaving." Oliver stood his ground. "Not without Chloe."

"This false bravado is annoying. I just walked in on you fucking my wife, you really don't have a say in the matter. You had a fling, now it's over. I didn't say anything before because you left and I assumed that was it. But then you had to come back. I get it, you missed her you came back for one last roll in the hay, trust me I know just how intoxicating her body is. Just the thought of it drives me crazy and I can't think of anything else until I've got her naked." He should have seen it coming, Lex should have known by the look on Oliver's face, the way his jaw clenched tighter and tighter but he was still caught off guard when Oliver hit him in the face, knocking him off balance and sending him crashing into the coffee table.

Lex stood up and looked over at Oliver who was clenching his fists at his side. "I love her." Oliver said. "This isn't some fling, this isn't one of your one night stands. I love her."

Lex chuckled before turning around and hitting Oliver in the jaw. "You love her?" He laughed again as he hit him in the stomach. "Then why did you leave?"

"I was trying to do the right thing." Oliver grunted, the pain in his stomach barely had time to dissipate when Lex hit him again.

"You should have stayed gone." Lex said as he grabbed him and shoved him away, straight into one of the desks, sending computers and office supplies crashing to the ground.

"Hey!" Chloe ran in the room and saw them, Oliver lying over the desk, Lex standing there panting, his lip bleeding. "What the hell are you doing."

"Just reminding him." Lex spit on the ground. "Which one of us is your husband."

"Oh yeah?" Oliver asked, pulling himself up painfully. "Husband. Is it really fair to use that word? Your marriage isn't even real."

"Oliver stop." Chloe pleaded with him.

"Yes Oliver." Lex walked closer. "Stop."

"God, I almost feel sorry for you." Oliver limped slightly forward. "Being stuck in a marriage, in love with a woman who you know never loved you back." Lex moved to hit him again and Oliver dodged it. "A woman who can never love you, not the way you love her." Lex didn't miss that time and Chloe screamed at the two of them once more to stop, but they ignored her, this was between them now.

"What do you know about anything?" Lex asked. "You don't know anything about our marriage."

"Oh I know everything about your marriage." Oliver said smiling. "That after three wives, it took Daddy and a little bit of blackmail for you to finally get the girl." Lex hit him again and Oliver just paused, caught his breath and kept on going.

"Both of you stop this is ridiculous." Chloe tried to get in between them but Oliver held out his hand.

"I know that somehow you managed to screw up a foolproof marriage." Oliver sucked in a breath and ducked another punch by Lex, this time delivering his own. "And even if I didn't know all of that. The look on your face when you caught us told me everything. She never screamed like that for you did she?" Oliver smiled and then hit him again, so hard that fell into the couch and slid to the floor.

"This whole thing is stupid Lex and you know it. It's stupid and it's wrong and forcing her to stay in this sham of a marriage isn't fair to her and it's not fair you." Oliver walked over, every intention of helping him up. His anger gone now. "I love her and she loves me and I'm going to be with her no matter what you say about it, no matter what Lionel says about it."

Lex stared up at him from his position on the floor and then averted his eyes. They landed on the coffee table, rather on something that was on the coffee table, two rings, Chloe's rings, her engagement ring and her wedding ring. He reached out and picked them up, staring at them in confusion. They should be on her hand, not lying there on the table next to the couch were she was fucking another man. He pulled himself up, shoving Oliver's outstretched hands away.

"You don't deserve her." Lex said wiping his lip. "Do you have any idea what we've gone through?" He hit Oliver harder this time, sending him to the floor. "You weren't there for her." He kicked him in the stomach and barely registered Chloe strangled cry. "I was. I love her." Lex screamed before kicking him again. "You weren't here." He spat out, kicking him one last time. "Gone for eight years and you think you can just come back and take her, take her away from me?" He looked down at Oliver; too tired to kick him again, too tired to do anything else. "You don't deserve her."

"No I don't." Oliver sad panting as he tried to pull himself up off the ground. "I wasn't here when she needed me, I wasn't here for her like you were and as much as this will surprise you, I envy you, I envy you those eight years, the good and the bad. And I'm glad she had you, I'm glad you were there for her. I wasn't there but I'm here now and I love her and that's all that matters." He pulled himself up to a standing position and sighed.

"It's not fair." Lex said quietly.

"No." Chloe stepped forward. "It's not fair Lex. It's love, it's not fair it's not logical, its messy and it's unexpected and there's nothing you can do about it." She helped Oliver stand up straighter, holding him up as he clutched his stomach.

Oliver looked him straight in the eye and took in a shaky breath. "We've never been friends, and we never will be, but Chloe says you've changed, gotten better. Chloe truly believes that so I believe her so I'm asking you…you had her for eight years. Be the better man here Lex, do what I can't do, let her go. If you really love her, let her go."

A/N: I know it was evil to end it right there, just be glad I'm nice and I have the next and final chapter ready and waiting.


	11. Chapter 11

"That's the last box." Chloe said to Bart who nodded grabbing it from her and walking to the elevator. Chloe turned around and took a deep breath. She looked at the apartment with a sad smile on her face. She never thought it would be hard to leave, but this had been her home.

"Are you sure you don't want the chairs?" Lex asked from behind her. "You love those chairs."

Chloe turned around quickly. "What are you doing here?"

"Me?" He walked into the room and smiled. "I still live here."

Chloe blushed slightly. "Right."

"You can have the chairs Chloe." Lex offered.

"I think we're gonna get our own chairs." She said quietly. "But thanks for offering."

"It's the least I can do." He walked over to her. "After saving me so much money with the divorce settlement."

"I never wanted your money." Chloe reminded him. "But if you'll reconsider…"

"No." Lex shook his head smiling sadly.

"Come on Lex. She makes the best coffee in the world." Chloe begged him.

"You aren't poaching my housekeeper." He laughed at her. "It's taking everything I have in me to let you go Chloe, don't ask me to give her up too." Chloe lost her smile and nodded. "Any thing else though? Come on there's got to be something you want."

Chloe thought for a minute and then smiled at him. "You know what I really want?"

"Name it." Lex offered.

"I want to know what you did to make Lionel let me off the hook." She crossed her arms over her chest and Lex smiled at her.

"_Alexander!" Lionel stormed into Lex's office and slapped something on his desk. "What in the hell are these?" _

_Lex looked up from his computer and glanced over. "Divorce papers." Lex said in a bored tone as he went back to his computer. _

"_Your divorce papers?" Lionel screamed._

_Lex sighed and picked the papers up, looking more closely at them. "Yes." He said dropping them down on the desk. "Did you just drop by to show them too me? Because I saw them when I signed them." _

"_What exactly do you think you're doing? The both of you?" _

_Lex closed the computer and got up. "Well dad, the US government really doesn't like it when you're married to two people at the same time." _

"_You want to marry someone else?" Lionel raised an eyebrow._

"_No." Lex poured a drink. "Chloe does. Can I get you a drink?" _

"_Oh Chloe does." Lionel nodded and Lex could tell he was seconds away from loosing his cool. "And you just went along with it?" _

"_Looks that way doesn't it." Lex took a sip of his scotch and turned around. _

_Lionel's eyes were closed. "Son, please tell me this isn't about Oliver Queen." _

"_Sorry." Lex shrugged. "I can't do that." _

"_I can't believe what I'm hearing. You're giving your wife a divorce to marry the man who she cheated on you with?" Lex seemed surprised for a second. "Yes I knew all about it." _

"_Dad is there a purpose to this visit other than to list things that I already know?" Lex walked back over to his desk._

"_You know what?" Lionel grabbed the papers. "None of this matters, because we had a deal and regardless of whether she wants a divorce or you're willing to give her one, it's not going to happen." _

"_Dad, let it go." Lex said. _

"_I'm going to find her and when I find her, she's going to realize that I wasn't bluffing." Lionel walked to the door. _

"_Dad!" Lex slammed his glass on the table and Lionel turned around. "Sit down." _

"_Son, I'm not sure what you're…" _

"_Sit down." Lex said in a tone that Lionel had never heard him use before. Without realizing it, he sat down. "You aren't going to find Chloe, you aren't going to threaten Chloe, you aren't ever going to speak to Chloe again, in fact, don't even look at her." _

"_And why would I do that?" Lionel asked. _

_Lex opened a drawer, pulled out a file folder and slid it across the desk. Lionel opened the folder and paused, flipping through page after page slowly, his face getter paler by the second. "Would you like that drink now?" Lex stood up and Lionel nodded. _

_By the time Lex got back with the scotch Lionel was finished. "Where did you get this?" He asked after downing the first glass. Lex moved to refill it but Lionel shook his head. _

"_Just a few things I've collected over the years." Lex said. "Now, Chloe and I are getting a divorce, actually we've already gotten it, and there's nothing you can do about it, there will be no repercussions for either her or myself." Lex sat back down. "Illegal fire arms deals in Libya dad?" Lex shook his head. "Selling plutonium to the Iranians. I'm not sure the State Department or the UN would take too kindly to that." Lionel lifted his head up. _

"_You've been collecting this for a while." Lionel slid the folder back to Lex who just nodded. "And yet you waited until now to use it against me? You could have been out of this marriage four years ago." _

_Lex took a sip and smiled at Lionel. "Yeah, Chloe never finds that out either." _

"_I guess the only thing I can say is…checkmate." Lionel stood up smiling strangely at Lex before walking out of the office. _

"Now if I told you that." Lex said. "What reason would he have to keep the deal?"

"Well, I've got all my stuff." She told him. "I packed up the Clock tower yesterday."

"Better Tomorrows should do just as good in Star City as it did in Metropolis." Lex offered. "The announcement's coming out tomorrow; do you know what you're going to say? What you're going to tell people?"

Chloe nodded. "I guess there's only one thing left to do." She looked down at her hand and stared for a minute before pulling her wedding rings off. She twirled them around her fingers before placing them on the counter. Lex looked down at his hand and then did the same thing, setting his ring down next to hers on the counter. "So that's it then."

"No." Lex shook his head and reached into his pocket. He hesitated only a second before handing over a folded up piece of paper.

"What's this?" Chloe took it from him and slowly opened it, her eyes going wide, her face breaking out into a smile. "Hill's coffee recipe."

"She told me to tell you to guard it with your life." Lex said.

"I will." Chloe clutched the piece of paper to her chest and smiled up at Lex before turning away and walking to the elevator. She stopped halfway there, turned around and walked back over. She brought her hand up to his face and rubbed his cheek slowly. "It wasn't that bad." She assured him. "Being married to you." He smiled softly and she reached up and kissed him. His arms automatically reached out for her, his hands settling on her hips as he pulled her closer, just a little and then she pulled away, still smiling. "You deserve better than me." Chloe said.

"Never imagined I'd hear those words out of your mouth." Lex laughed.

"You and me both." She chuckled. "But it's true. You deserve better than what I gave you, and I hope you find it someday."

"Thanks." He stepped back and her hand fell to her side.

"Goodbye Lex." She said sadly and walked to the elevator.

* * *

Chloe walked out of the building, still clutching the piece of paper with the coffee recipe in her hands when she stopped. Oliver was standing in front of her, leaning against a town car smiling. "What are you doing here?" Chloe asked him confused. "You're supposed to be waiting for me in Star City."

"You were taking too long." He stood up straight and opened the car door.

"I was packing up a life." She reminded him.

"I know." He laughed. "I didn't think my apartment was small until Bart started showing up with your boxes."

"If it's a problem I can live somewhere else." She smiled as she climbed in the car.

"No way." Oliver shook his head. "I've been waiting ten years for this; we'll just buy a bigger place."

"Sounds like a solid plan." Chloe said.

"And in the mean time, we'll get a room in a hotel." He joked. "Because I can't seem to locate my bed through all your things." She slapped his arm and he laughed.

Then she noticed something on the opposite seat from her. "That's my luggage." She pointed out. "But all my stuff is in Star City."

"Yes, but we aren't going to Star City." Oliver told her.

"We aren't?" Chloe asked confused.

"Nope, I think that you and I deserve a vacation. With the divorce announcement coming out tomorrow and the media circus that will ensue once people find out that we're together, a vacation is exactly what we need, just hide away from the world for a while."

"A vacation. " Chloe nodded. "Sounds good, where are we going?"

"Well." Oliver sat down next to her. "I know this great little Island off the coast of Madagascar, the perfect place to hide." He grabbed her hand and Chloe smiled, intertwining her fingers in his. "Plus we've got a wedding to go to."

"Can we make a stop first?" Chloe asked and Oliver shrugged.

* * *

Clark was in the barn fixing the tractor when she walked through the door and coughed to get his attention. He looked over surprised and dropped his wrench. "Chloe!"

She glared at him and walked straight up to him, slapping him across the face. Again it hurt her more than it hurt him, but again she didn't even flinch. He looked at her confused. "Dumbass." She glared at him.

"I'm sorry?" He was still very confused.

"Ok, here's the thing." Chloe seemed nervous now. "We both wasted a lot of time being stupid so we aren't going to do the long drawn out apologies because I'll cry and you'll cry and it'll turn into this really big thing and we wasted enough time. No ones to blame for anything and we can't change the past so we're just not going to bring it up all right. We wasted eight years with each other and I'm tired and I want my friend back and none of the apologies matter anyway because we're family, and by law we have to forgive each other so there."

"Ok." Clark smiled at her.

"Can we skip to the hugging now?" Chloe asked.

"Yeah." Clark nodded pulling her into a tight hug that the both of them had been wanting for the last eight years.

Chloe pulled away reluctantly. "Ok, good, that's out of the way. I've got to go, I've got a plane to catch and a wedding to get to and then I have to try and fit all of my stuff into Oliver's tiny apartment but when I'm done with all that we'll talk. I'll come back here or you'll come to Star City but I haven't spoken to you in eight years and we've got a lot of catching up to do."

"Ok." Clark said.

"But while I'm dealing with all my stuff, you're going to do something for me." Chloe said. "On Monday you'll be starting your new job at the Daily Planet. I've already talked to Perry, everything's set up, you'll be working with Lois but that doesn't matter so just get over it. Now, you can stay out here and do the long commute thing or you can move into the Clock Tower. I can't get rid of it and it's just going to be sitting there empty so I might as well put it to good use. Personally I vote for the Clock Tower because you need to get out of Smallville and you need to get off this farm." She handed him a set of keys and Clark took them.

"Chloe…" Clark looked at her confused.

"Now you're really behind here on this whole Son of Krypton destiny thing so you should probably get right on that." She smiled up at him. "I don't want to hear anything about it, you have these amazing gifts Clark and you just shut yourself away on this farm when you could have been out there helping people, helping lots of people so we're gonna work on that when I get back too. Obviously you can't run around saving the world in jeans and a t-shirt so we'll figure out something, work on a secret identity for you, maybe a costume, we'll work on the details later, it doesn't matter." She took a deep breath and sighed. "But we are going to work on it, and I'm going to make sure you do what you were put on this earth to do, I'm not going to have any complaining or protests. I will stay on your ass about this thing day and night so there's no getting out of this."

"Chloe." Clark smiled at her.

"Yeah?" She looked up at him.

"I missed you." He hugged her again and she laughed, holding him tight.

"She'll be back in a few weeks." Oliver said from the doorway. "I promise, but we've really got to go." Clark and Chloe didn't stop hugging. "A few weeks." He said again, a smile on his face as Clark reluctantly let go of Chloe.

"I'll hold you to that." He nodded at Oliver.

"Ok, so don't be late on Monday, and try not to give Lois too hard a time." Chloe said as she walked toward the door. "And maybe go buy a suit or something, flannel doesn't really say serious reporter."

"I'll be fine Chloe." Clark assured her. "I am a grown man."

"Clark, you've done a sum total of nothing without me these past eight years, so humor me." Chloe said. "I'll see you in a few weeks."

"See you." Clark said. "Oh and Chloe!" She turned around and nodded at him. "I wouldn't have cried."

"Oh you would have cried." She smiled. "You'd have cried like a baby." She screamed after him as she got into the car with Oliver.

One Week Later...

Oliver watched Chloe walk out of the crystal blue water and ring her hair out as a porter relived her of her mask and snorkel. She spotted him right away and her smile got even bigger if that was possible. "Hey." She said leaning over pretty far to give him a kiss, trying to not get him wet.

"Hey." He smiled back at her. "You just had to get up at five a.m. and snorkel?" He joked with her.

"I really did." She sounded giddy and Oliver couldn't fault her.

"You work up a good appetite?" He handed Chloe her bag and she pulled out the cover up she'd practically lived in since they got there and put it on over her wet swim suit and slipped on her sandals.

"Oh yeah." Chloe nodded. "I was out there for hours, I didn't even realize, the reef goes all the way around the Island and it's so full of everything. AC would love it here. We'll have to come back."

"We'll definitely do that." Oliver holding the door to the restaurant open to her. They'd been on the island for a week, done Rachel's wedding, and now they were just relaxing, enjoying being together.

They ate brunch and had a good time. "So what do you want to do now?" Chloe asked leaving the restaurant with her arm around Oliver's waist. "They've got a hike into the mountains later." She walked. "There's a sailing course, we could go fishing…" They walked into their private cabin Chloe walked into the bathroom.

"Actually, I got a surprise in the gift shop today." Oliver walked into the bathroom and Chloe turned to him. He pulled a small box out from behind his back and she smiled. "Travel Trivial Pursuit." He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

"Ok." Chloe nodded slowly. "You ready to loose your pants?

"Actually I think you might want to put some more clothes on." He looked over at her swimsuit and cover up. "I've been studying."

"Is that so?" Chloe looked at him.

"I'm telling you, you're gonna want more than two articles of clothing." He warned her.

"I think I'll take my chances." Chloe smiled and walked into the other room with him.

Fifteen minutes later Chloe and Oliver were lying in bed, completely out of breath. "Shortest game of Trivial Pursuit ever?" She turned to him laughing.

"I told you I've been studying." Oliver laughed.

"I let you win." Chloe told him.

"You let me win?" Oliver raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Of course." Chloe wrapped the bed sheet around her and moved to the end of the bed to get the box. "I mean who doesn't know that sweet pickle relish was invented by Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China."

"You knew that?" Oliver smirked at her.

"Didn't you?" Chloe scoffed.

"I did actually." Oliver smiled.

"Really?" Chloe wrinkled her nose.

"I told you I studied." Oliver sat up straighter.

"Ok." Chloe said and she pulled out another card. "Who was the first leader of the Soviet Union's Communist Party born after the Russian Revolution? Even I know that." She smiled at him.

"Mikhail Gorbachev." Oliver said smartly.

"Fine, let's find another." She dug through the cards and pulled one out. "Who was the first female member of the White House staff?"

Oliver thought for a second. "Alice Sanger."

"Show off. You did study." She pulled another card. "Ok, who was the first person to build an astronomy radio telescope?"

"Grote Reber." Oliver told her. "But I knew that one before." He waved her off.

"Hmm." She pulled another card and smirked at him. "Here we go, no way you know this. How much money did President Abraham Lincoln have in his pockets when he was assassinated?"

"Five dollars." Oliver crossed his arms over his chest, looking smug and Chloe opened her mouth to say something. "In Confederate currency."

"You are just a font of useless trivia aren't you?" Chloe tossed the cards aside.

"That I am." Oliver nodded.

"Do you have any idea, how hot you are right now?" Chloe smiled.

"Oh yeah?" He smiled.

"Intelligence is very sexy." Chloe told hm.

"Did you know that Julius Caesar had twelve toes?"

"Really?" Chloe leaned over and crawled toward him.

"Yep." Oliver said. "Also William Shakespeare was dyslexic."

"That's actually interesting." Chloe crawled closer.

"Uh huh, and Australia is sinking at a rate of three centimeters a year." He said as Chloe finally made it in front of him.

"Poor Australians."

"I know right." Oliver smiled. "But funnily enough, Australia is also the driest continent on the earth."

"Oliver." Chloe looked up at him. "Why are we still talking about Australia?"

"I have no idea." He shook his head and then kissed her, pulling her down on top of him. He was untangling the sheet from around her when they heard a phone ring. Chloe pulled away annoyed.

"That's me." She pulled the sheet tighter around her and Oliver grabbed her hand.

"Don't it's probably a reporter." Oliver tried to pull her back in the bed and she laughed.

"I got a new phone before we left, only like two people have the number." She pulled away and grabbed the phone. "It's Lois."

"Again?" Oliver sighed and leaned his head against the head board.

"Give her a break." Chloe said answering her phone. "Hey Lois." Chloe sat on the edge of the bed and Oliver crawled over to her.

"He's doing it again." Lois growled into the phone.

"Lois come on we've been over this." Chloe rolled her eyes as Oliver swept her hair off the back of her neck.

"I don't care what you say." Chloe could hear her typing. "He's staring at me."

"His desk is right across from yours, if he looks straight ahead, he's looking at you, he's not doing it on purpose." Chloe sighed as Oliver slowly started to kiss her neck. She waved her hand behind her to stop him but he didn't stop.

"No, see I fixed that." Lois told her. "I moved everything into the center of the desk to block his path."

"Ok." Chloe said slowly. "So you've put everything in a pile in the middle of your desk? Maybe that's why he's staring at you, because he thinks you've gone crazy." Chloe turned to glare at Oliver as he slowly pulled the sheet away from her.

"So you admit that he's staring at me." Lois said triumphantly.

"Is he at his desk?" Chloe sighed pulling the sheet out of Oliver's hand.

"Yes, staring at me." Lois said and Chloe could hear the glare in her voice.

"Well because you're sitting there talking about him. You need to calm down and just get over it, you work together now, deal with it, now put him on the phone."

"Fine." Lois grumbled. "By the way what's up with the glasses? Since when has he worn those?"

"He used to wear contacts but then…he developed and allergy." Chloe said quickly. That was her suggestion, a part of his secret identity. "Just put him on the phone."

Chloe could hear her lean over the desk. "Chloe wants to talk to you." She snapped.

"Thanks." Clark said. "Hey Chloe."

"Hey." She stood up as Oliver's hand snaked around her stomach and she glared at him. He sighed and fell to the bed.

"Look, you've got to stop staring at her." Chloe said to him.

"I can't help it." Clark said. "She looks different."

"She grew up, she's more professional now." Chloe said. "That's all."

"And she's acting weird." He whispered. "She pilled everything up in the center of her desk."

"Ok, she's more professional now but she's still Lois." Chloe explained. "Just stop staring at her, and don't pick anymore fights."

"Breaking and entering is illegal." Clark said. "I'm just supposed to go along with her?"

"Yes Clark, you're a reporter now and unofficially things like laws don't really apply to you anymore."

"It doesn't work that way." Clark scolded her.

"It does when you want a bi-line on the front page of the Daily Planet." Chloe said. "Now please could you guys try to get along even if it's just for two more weeks so I can enjoy my vacation and not play the mom with you two?"

"Sorry." Clark said. "I'll let you get back to your…"

"Trivial Pursuit." Chloe told him.

"Really." Clark said as if he didn't believe her. "You're on a remote tropical island, in a private bungalow, and you're playing Trivial Pursuit."

"We are." Chloe said. "That's my story and I'm sticking to it." She hung up the phone and turned around.

"Now." Oliver sat up. "Where were we?"

"We were late." Chloe said looking at her watch. "We're supposed to meet Greta for dinner."

"Really?" Oliver pouted.

"Well. Since we're late." She walked over to the bed. "And we both still have to shower, it would probably just be faster to do it together." She offered him.

He stood up smiling. "That sounds like the greatest idea you've possibly ever had."

* * *

"Hey there's Greta." Chloe smiled and headed to the table the other girl was sitting at and sat down. Oliver had been right, once they'd gotten to know each other, they hit it off instantly. Greta had come for Rachel's wedding like them, and also like them had fallen in love with the secluded resort and decided to stay there while making the last few changes to her book. Oliver sat down next to them and smiled as they engaged their own conversation. He snagged a passing waiter and ordered Chloe some coffee.

"Crap." Chloe checked her watch. "I forgot to check in with Kate."

"No, no work." Oliver reminded her.

"Ok, I left her alone to unpack the entire office in a new location in the middle of a huge project." Chloe said. "We were supposed to break ground on fifteen schools today, I just want to make sure everything went smoothly."

"Five minutes." Oliver raised his eyebrows.

"Swear." Chloe kissed his cheek. "And I'll make it up to you later."

"I'll hold you to that." Oliver smiled as she walked out of the room to use her phone.

"You look happy." Greta smiled at him. "Really happy."

"I am happy." Oliver turned to her, tearing his eyes off of Chloe.

"You know when I was your nurse, all I could really think about was the fact that you were so alone. No one knew who you were, you had no visitors, no family, it was so sad." She looked at Chloe. "And now look at you."

"Yep, I'm doing pretty good for a guy who was asleep for eight years."

"You're doing pretty great." Greta said kissing his cheek.

"Sorry, no more work, the rest of the trip." Chloe sat back down. "Did you order yet?"

"Not yet." Greta shook her head. "So I've been trying to be patient but I just can't take it anymore." She took a deep breath. "What did you think?"

Chloe just stared at her in astonishment. "I finished it last night." She reached down in her bag and pulled out a manuscript sliding it back over to Greta. "It was amazing."

"Really?" Greta smiled relieved. "You liked it?"

"Liked it?" Chloe laughed. "I loved it. I honestly don't know what your publishers possibly think you could change."

"You liked the ending?" Greta asked as she flipped through the pages. "You don't think it was to…how do you say…cheesy? He gets the girl, they live happily ever after?"

"No." Chloe shook her head emphatically. "I mean I guess I'm a little biased seeing as how it's my ending, but I think it's perfect."

"I don't know." Oliver said, putting himself in the conversation. "I think it's missing something."

"Missing something." Chloe looked over at him. "Are you crazy, what on earth could it possibly be missing?"

"Well how do we know they end up happily ever after? I mean sure he gets the girl and they ride off into the sunset but that's it, that's how you're going to leave it?" He asked.

"Well what do you suggest?" Chloe asked him.

"I don't know, something that shows us they end up together forever, or at least hints at it. Maybe, I don't know, I'm just throwing things out there." He reached in his pocket and pulled out a small box. "Maybe a wedding." He opened the box and slid it over to Chloe who reached a hand out to grab it and stared at him.

"A wedding?" Greta wasn't even paying attention. She was flipping through the manuscript as Chloe slowly picked up the box. "You don't think that would definitely push it over into cheesy?" Chloe looked down at the ring. It was small, not small, understated, it was light and airy and perfect. "What do you think Chloe?" Greta asked looking over at her, pausing when she saw the ring box and then looking to Oliver and back to Chloe again.

"Yeah Chloe." Oliver leaned forward. "What do you think?" He grabbed her hand and the ring box and pulled the ring out, holding it above her ring finger.

"I think a wedding might be pushing it a bit." She looked up at him. "So soon after everything that happened." Oliver seemed startled and moved to pull away but Chloe grabbed his arm. "But an engagement." She smiled up at him. "I think an engagement would be perfect."

"Yeah?" Oliver asked hopefully.

"Yeah. Yes, of course." Chloe nodded at him as he slipped the ring on her finger and then practically pulled her into his lap as he hugged her happily. "God I love you." She smiled and kissed him softly.

"I love you too." He said to her as she looked down and examined her ring.

"Oh my God." Greta practically squealed and grabbed Chloe's hand to check out the ring. "Rachel is going to be so pissed she missed this."

* * *

A/N: So that's it, that's all she wrote, well all I wrote, I hope you enjoyed it, I enjoyed writing it. I'm working on another one, which will probably be longer than this, but not as long as Last Job. Generally I like to have at least half the story written before I start posting so it might be a while.


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